
Class ■__ j F^37 5 

Book, -W? 



Copyright})^.- 



I ^ 0^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 




JOSEPH E. WING. 



Sheep Farming 
In America. 



® 



By JOSEPH E. WING, 

Staff Correspondent of The Breeder's Gazette. 



® 



CHICAGO, ILL.: 

Sanders Publishing Co. 

190S. 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

DEC 16 1905 

Copy riff ht Entry 
cuss CK XXc. No. 

/^9 4 7 6" 

COPY B. 






.< 



Copyright, 1905, 
BY SANDERS PUBLISHING CO. 

All rights reserved. 



^ CONTENTS. 



Illustrations 11-12 

Introduction 13-19 

CHAPTER I. 

Fine- Wool Breeds 21-31 

Merinos 22 

Delaine Merinos and Black Tops 25 

Rambouillets 26 

CHAPTER n. 

Mutton Breeds 32-56 

The Downs — 

Southdowns 35 

Shropshires 38 

Hampshires 40 

Oxfords 42 

The Long-Wools — 

Leicesters 42 

Cotswolds 45 

Lincolns 46 

Dorset Horns ... 47 

The Mountain Breeds — 

Cheviots 50 

Black-faces 51 

CHAPTER III. 

Selection and Management 57-84 

Restocking a Farm with Sheep 57 

(5) 



6 CONTENTS. 

Selection of the Ram 58 

Selection of the Ewes 59 

Getting- Home with the Flock 62 

Importance of Dipping 62 

Scab Insect 64 

The Dipping- Vat 65 

Reg-ular Dipping of the Farm Flock 68 

Summary of Dipping- 71 

Fall Treatment of the Ewe Flock 72 

Mating 73 

Putting- in the Ram 74 

Management of the Ram 76 

Care of the Preg-nant Ewe 78 

CHAPTER IV. 

Care of the Ewe and Young Lamb 85-129 

The Ewe Barn 85 

Care at Lambing- Time 89 

Feeding of the Ewe After Lambing 96 

Troubles of Young Lambhood 101 

Sore Mouths and Teats 102 

Feeding the Lambs 103 

Feeding for the Market 106 

Dressing Lambs for Fancy Winter Market 114 

Treatment of the Late-born Lamb 116 

Feeding Corn on Grass 120 

Summer Shade 121 

Marketing the Spring Lamb 125 

Docking 125 

Castration of Old Rams 127 

Castration of Lambs 127 

Weaning 128 

CHAPTER V. 

Summer Care and Management 130-163 

The Ewe Flock 130 



CONTENTS. 7 

Use of Sown Pastures 139 

Oats and Alfalfa Pasture 140 

Clover and Alfalfa Pasture 143 

Danger from Clover and Alfalfa Pasture 144 

The Use of Rape..... 150 

Cabbages 151 

Pumpkins 152 

Care of the Feet 155 

Foot-Rot and Foot-Scald 156 

Advent of Late Lambs 158 

The Lambing Tent 159 

Fall Lambs 161 

CHAPTER VI. 

Washing, Shearing and Marking 164-179 

Washing and Shearing 166 

Shearing 166 

Shearing Machines 169 

Marking 174 

The Tattoo Mark 175 

Marking Pure-bred Lambs • 177 

CHAPTER VII. 

Flock Husbandry in the Western States 180 230 

New Mexico 180 

Characteristics of Mexican Sheep 181 

" The Good Old Times" in New Mexico 183 

Modern Management 184 

Diseases of the Range 187 

Mexican Lambs as Feeders 188 

The Wandering Herds 189 

Waiting for Grass to Come 190 

The Blood of the Herds 192 

The Division of the Ranges 192 

Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas 193 

Parasitic Infection of the Ranges 194 



8 CONTENTS. 

Happy Future of the Region 197 

Manag-ement of the Range Rams 198 

Where the Rams Come From 199 

The Breeding Season 199 

Vigor of Ewes and Lambs 200 

The Busy Shepherd at Lambing Time 200 

The Coyote 201 

"Trimming" the Lambs 202 

Shearing on the Range 204 

Dipping 205 

The Maligned "Sheep Herder" 207 

Ups and Downs of the Business 209 

The Hopeful Outlook 210 

A Work to be Done 210 

Sheep Advance ; Cattle Retreat 212 

Winter Feeding of Sheep and Lambs 212 

Necessity for Dipping 213 

Selection of Feeders 217 

Feeding of Lambs 230 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Western Lamb Feeding 231-276 

Pea Feeding in Colorado 231 

Alfalfa-fed Colorado Lambs 2.32 

Feeding Mill Screenings 241 

Sheep-feeding in the Corn-Belt 242 

Use of Self-feeders 262 

Feeding Beet Pulp 262 

Peas for Lambs 265 

Conclusion, the Importance of the Matter 265 

Feeding of Older Sheep 266 

Feeding Mature Wethers 267 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Diseases of Sheep 277-307 

Ailments in General 277 



CONTENTS. 9 

Importance of Post-Mortem Dissection 283 

Other Diseases of Sheep 284 

Garget, or Mammitis 285 

Grub in the Head 288 

Liver Fluke— "The Rot" 289 

Nodular Disease 290 

Tape Worms 291 

Husk, Hoose, or Parasitic Bronchitis 292 

The Stomach Worm (Strong-ylus Contortus) 293 

Treatment for Roundworms in Sheep, Goats and 

Cattle 295 

Coal-Tar Creosote 296 

Coal-Tar Creosote and Thymol 298 

Gasoline 298 

Methods of Drenching Animals 301 

Position of Animal During Drenching 302 

Start with a Healthy Flock 303 

CHAPTER X. 

The Angora and Milking Goats 308-326 

The Angora Goat 308 

The Milking Goat 322 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Joseph E. Wing Frontispiece. 

Two-year-old Merino Ram 23 

Yearling- Rambouillet Ewes in France 27 

Photographic Studies in Down Types of Sheep 33 

Farm Training for the Show Ring 38 

Lincoln Rams 43 

Lincoln Ewes 43 

Some Ohio Dorsets 47 

Cheviot Ewes 54 

Dorset Ewes 60 

Dipping Sheep at the University of Wisconsin 63 

Dipping Plant 70 

Rambouillet Ram 75 

Shropshire Ewes on a Canadian Farm 79 

Black-faced Rams 83 

Southdown Ewes 86 

Delaine-Merino Ram Lambs 91 

A Bunch of Nebraska Leicesters 97 

' ' Mary Had Five Little Lambs " 103 

Dorset Lambs on the Way to Market 107 

An English "Creep " 113 

Ready for Market 115 

Merinos Posed for a Picture 118 

A Carload of Yearling Wethers 123 

In an Old Country Pasture 131 



12 ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Cotswold Ewes 136 

Feeding Lambs on a Hillside Pasture 142 

Studies in Sheep Character 147 

Yearling- Oxford Ram 152 

Leicester Ram 153 

Imported Hampshire Ram Lambs 162 

Hand Shearing Machine 169 

Shearing Black-faced Sheep in Scotland 172 

Yearling Oxford Ram 182 

Dishley Merinos in France 185 

Black-faced Sheep in the Hills 191 

A Kansas Feeding Yard, Capacity 18,000 Sheep 195 

A Sheep Wagon on the Range 201 

Lincoln Shearlings 204 

An Illinois Feeding and Shipping Yard 206 

Suffolk Ram 211 

A Fine-wooled Flock on a Western Farm 215 

Feeding Corral, with Straight Fence 221 

A Show of Cotswolds 227 

Shropshire Feeders in Colorado 233 

Racks for Feeding Grain 238 

Box Rack for Feeding Alfalfa 239 

Cross-section of Model Sheep Barn Showing Frame 243 

Side View of Model Sheep Barn Showing Doors 244 

Two Views of Feed Rack 247 

Feeding Corral, with Zigzag Fence 253 

Sheep Wagons .260 

A Texas Feeding Yard 263 

A Pair of Hampshire Lambs 268 

At a Royal English Show 269 

Lincolns in the Show Ring 273 

A-n Angora Goat Show 311 



INTRODUCTION. 



The traveler in England, Scotland aad parts 
of France and Germany is impressed by the 
importance of the sheep industry to these lands. 
Sheep farms are often found close together and 
of large size with great numbers of sheep there- 
on. The writer has stood on one hill in Dorset- 
shire and counted eight shepherds, each with 
his flock of about 400 ewes and their lambs, in 
sight at one time. Nearby, in an adjoining 
county, flocks of Hampshires exist as large as 
2,500 on farms of not above 1,400 acres of not 
extra soil. These flocks are very profitable and 
they make rich soils that without the sheep 
would be hardly worth cultivating. They ex- 
ist in wonderful health and vigor on lands that 
have been sheeped since civilization peopled the 
land. In Scotland and the Cheviot hills flocks 
exist over the entire land and without sheep 
the land would almost lapse into wilderness. In 
Prance on lands worth $250.00 per acre great 
flocks of mutton sheep are kept. The agricul- 
ture of these countries leans strongly on the 
sheep. Long experience in maintaining fertil- 
ity, in creating it, has taught the farmers that 
without the flocks they can not continue profit- 
able agriculture. Sheep fit in well to an in- 
tensive system of agriculture. They are docile, 

(13) 



14 SHEEP FARMING tN AMERICA* 

tractable, easily kept within bounds, not fastid- 
ious in their appetites but willing to devour 
most weeds along with the good forage, and 
they leave behind them a wake of fruitful soii. 

In America sheep farming is little understood. 
Sheep are kept in a more or less desultory man- 
ner, having the run of some hill pasture or 
woodland, fed at intervals in winter, sold off 
when prices become low, bought up again with 
the return of higher prices, given small care 
or encouragement, often afflicted with parasites, 
internal and external, a side issue to the farmer, 
profitable in spite of his neglect, yet not often 
assuming the dignity of a business of them- 
selves. There are several reasons for this state. 
It is in part a heritage of the days when sheep 
were little valued for their flesh and were kept 
mainly for their fleeces. It is in part a result 
of our once cheap lands and insufficient labor 
with which to till them. And in large part it 
is because of ignorance of profitable methods. 
When sheep thrive their owners gladly reap 
the profits; when they become diseased and un- 
profitable it is usually charged to ''bad luck." 
There need be small element of luck or chance 
in sheep management. There is always a rea- 
son for thrift and for un thrift in the flock. There 
need rarely be any disease in the flock. A 
healthy sheep is certain to be a profitable one. 

There is at this time good reason for think- 
ing seriously of these problems of sheep hus- 
bandry because of the increase in mutton con- 
sumption and the curious parallel fact that 
the production is decreasing. April 1, 1903, 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

saw about 39,204,000 sheep siioni; April, 1904, 
about 38,342,000, or nearly a million less. It is 
probable that this decrease has been checked, 
though there has been no decided change in 
conditions and comparatively little re-stocking 
of Eastern farms. Sheep are essentially today 
dwellers of the range, the mountain and the 
desert. Montana has the largest number of 
sheep, 5,576,000; Wyoming has 3,800,000; New 
Mexico, 3,150,000; Idaho, 2,300,000; Ohio, 2,033,- 
000; Utah, 2,025,000; Oregon, 2,000,000; Cali- 
fornia, 1,625,000; Texas, 1,440,000; Colorado, 
1,300,000; Michigan, 1,200,000; Pennsylvania, 
850,000; New York, 675,000; Washington, 560,- 
000; Nevada, 600,000; Arizona, 620,000; Indi- 
ana, 700,000, and all other states below 600,000 
each. It will be seen that in comparison with 
the ranges the states make rather a small 
showing in the sheep industry, Ohio and Mich- 
igan excepted. The fact of free grass upon the 
Western ranges and the general healthfulness 
of flocks in that arid region have had a deterring 
influence upon the sheep industry in the old 
farming states. Now, however, that the ranges 
seem unable to supply the mutton that is de- 
manded by our consumers it is time to forget 
their menace and to take up again our old trade 
of shepherding on our Eastern farms. 

There are several excellent reasons why this 
is a rational and promising industry in which 
to embark. The ranges are now fully stocked 
with cattle and sheep. To increase the num- 
bers of sheep means to drive out more cattle 
and this the cattle men are resisting by armed 



16 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

force. On many of the drier ranges tlie sheep 
have overpastured the grass till much of it has 
been destroyed root and branch and thus its 
carrying power is much decreased. Settlers are 
taking the land in every irrigable valley and 
fencing it and there is thus in every way a 
steady diminution in the numbers of sheep 
on the ranges. Nor can it be seen how this may 
be checked and their numbers made to increase, 
seeing that alfalfa forms almost the sole forage 
grown in the arid region, and this is not a crop 
suited to careless grazing of large bands of 
sheep by hireling herders. 

Consider again that the prejudice that at one 
time existed against mutton eating has almost 
died away. The cities are eating all the mutton 
that they can get and are paying for it much 
more than they are paying for beef or pork. 
There are doubtless several excellent reasons 
for this. Fashion is one. The fact that crowds 
of our people visit England every year leads 
them to form the '4ainb chop" habit. Mutton 
is better fattened and prepared than formerly. 
There is offered a very much greater supply of 
lamb mutton than of mutton from old sheep, 
and that helps. Then the old-time type of small, 
wrinkly, thin-fleshed sheep has about disap- 
peared, and that helps. There is demand for 
lambs from babyhood up to a year of age, well 
fattened; there is demand for mature mutton. 
Whether the packers have or have not con- 
trolled the price of beef they have not been able 
or desirous of keeping down the price of mutton. 
For ten years feeders of lambs have prospered 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

exceedingly, with occasional discouragements, 
and there is no prospect of the production of 
good, well-linished mutton being overdone for 
some years to come, it can not be overdone 
until one of two things happens, either the 
American people must fall into calamitous days 
or a great number of farmers must turn shep- 
herds and learn the business from the ground 
up. Neither of these things will happen soon. 
Sheep husbandry is not ditiicult but it requires 
close attention to details and that we will not 
many of us give. The few who will patiently 
learn the art will therefore prosper the more 
exceedingly. 

It is a happy thought to look forward to the 
day when well kept, happy flocks will abound 
in our land. Then weeds will disappear, to be 
replaced by luxuriant grass and forage crops. 
Then trim fields, each with its appropriate 
green growth, will be dotted with snowy-fleeced 
ewes and plump, rollicking lambs, each one a 
picture of health and thrift ; shepherds ' neat cot- 
tages will shelter an intelligent and thrifty class 
of farm laborers, great piles of manure wil] 
be accumulated in winter time to replenish the 
old fields, the farm boys will find enough to 
do and sufficient encouragement for doing it 
and will remain on the farms and then agri- 
culture will be truly an upbuilding, a creation 
of fertility and farms where now there is little 
of profit left to country dwellers. 

Let no one imagine, however, that these 
blessings follow the mere act of buying a flock 
and placing it upon the farm. *^ Sheep are 



18 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

ever an unliappy flock," remarked an old 
Eoman agriculturist, and in no other stock 
can the ignorant or heedless fanner have so 
great a variety of misfortunes as with the sheep, 
i^'ew of these troubles are unavoidable. It is 
to point the way to success and to indicate 
the rough places that this little book is written. 
It is to be regretted that a great change has 
come over country life. The old intimacy be- 
tween the farmer and his men, the farmer and 
his fields, the farmer and his animals, has to 
an extent gone, perhaps forever. Nevei'theless, 
the farmer who undertakes to keep sheep with 
profit must go back to the ways of his fathers 
and his boyhood, he must cultivate an acquaint- 
ance with the individuals in his flock, must 
learn to knoAv instantly by sight whether or 
no they are in health, must have their confi- 
dence so that he can without much trouble catch 
them afield, by aid of the shepherd's crook or 
a bit of salt or a handful of shelled corn. For- 
tunately this intimacy is a delight as well as a 
source of profit. ^'The eye of the Master fat- 
tens the flock. ' ' Hired shepherds may be faith- 
ful, but they need the suggestions and the in- 
spiration that come from wise co-operation of 
the employer. Best of all shepherds are the 
men who own the sheep. It is a delightful oc- 
cupation and one that interests the young. 
There is room for work, for thought, for growth 
in this work. Some of the happiest hours and 
most helpful the author has ever known have 
been spent in working among his ewes and 
lambs, or seated beneath a tree watching them 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

graze in the cool of the evening or seeing the 
lambs scamper up and down the hillsides. 

Strong men have come from tending sheep. 
Young David watched his father's flocks and 
in his zeal slewi:he lion and the bear that would 
have destroyed them. Gazing from his hill 
pastures afar out over the land he learned to 
love it well, so that the day came when he 
emerged from the solitude of the sheep pas- 
tures to be the one who should redeem Israel 
from bondage. Let us hope that in our own 
land young men may be found who while 
working with the gentle ewes and innocent 
Jambs may from these scenes of peace absorb 
sufficient Jove of home, country and native 
land that they may come forth strong to help 
in the redemption and upbuilding of their own 
country. 



CHAPTER I 



THE FINE-WOOL BREEDS. 

It is not thought worth while to present 
here extensive accounts of the various breeds 
of sheep; however, some mention must be made 
with the characteristics pertaining to each. 
Breeds originate from environment, from pe- 
culiar characters of soil and vegetation and 
climate, and from the mental idiosyncrasies of 
the breeders themselves. Each breed has its 
own particular field where it serves best a 
certain purpose. For all that, breeds are some- 
what flexible and several have a wide range 
of adaptability. Conditions of market and 
of environment make some breeds more prof- 
itable than others in certain locations. What 
would pay best on the range, in some remote 
state where wool by its cheap transportation 
brings the major share of profit, might not 
pay so well in near proximity to large cities 
where the demand is for quick-maturing mut- 
ton. Inversely, sheep are not suited to range 
conditions that are not good shearers, good 
to ^^lierd," that is, having the mental trait 
that makes them stay close together and an 
ability to withstand occasional times of starva- 
tion. On the farm the ability to live through 

(21) 



22 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

hard winters on sparse allowance of food is 
not a qualification worth taking into account. 

MERINO SHEEP. 

Probably the oldest races of domesticated 
sheep are the various families of Merinos. 
Most they have felt the moulding hand of 
man, most they seem to diverge from any 
wild type of which we have knowledge. Very 
likely Merinos were kept in Palestine during 
bible times and it may be that King David 
when a lad watched beside a flock of Merinos. 
Under the hand of man they have suffered 
a degeneration in form, not now being as 
hardy, as vigorous or full of stamina as any 
wild race of sheep now in existence. What 
they have lost in form and vigor they have 
gained in fleece. The wool of the Merino is 
the finest and for many purposes easily the 
best in the world. It should command the 
highest price and usually does. Merino breed- 
ers in the Eastern states, however, must com- 
pete with producers of wool in remote and 
semi-savage lands, Australia, Argentina, Pata- 
gonia, the Falkland Islands and parts of our 
own great West. 

Breeders of Merino sheep have followed 
many fashions and some that were their un- 
doing. At one time the aim was to secure a 
fleece of extreme fineness, though by this means 
was secured a sheep of little stamina and of 
small value for mutton production. Again the 
aim sought was an excessive amount of oil 
or ^ ^ yolk ' ' in the fleece, which made it heavier. 



FINE-WOOI^ BREEDS. 



23 



This weakened the sheep, made it sensitive 
to cold weather and, curiously enough, as the 
weight of yolk increased in the wool manu- 
facturers kept apace of the fact in buying, 
and by paying for it on a scoured basis there 
was nothing at all gained to the grower who 
sold the excessive amount of grease. A manu- 




TWO-YEAR-OLD MERINO RAM. 



facturer once related to the writer how in the 
palmy days of heavy fleeces a celebrated ram's 
fleece was brought to him to be scoured; it 
weighed 45 lbs., was probably of 18 or 24 
months' growth and made less than 12 lbs. of 
scoured wool! The farmer then had wasted 
food enough to produce more than 30 lbs. of 



24 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

a product of no utility whatever; in fact, being 
only a drain on the strength of the animal 
that produced it. It is of course essential 
that wool should have a sufficient amount of 
this yolk to preserve the fiber; more than this 
is a damage in every way. 

It would seem that now the fads in Merino 
sheep have nearly disappeared and the breed- 
ers at the present time are breeding useful 
Merinos, with generally more size and better 
forms and more of mutton quality than was 
once seen. 

The importance of the Merino breed will be 
recognized when it is remembered that about 
22,000,000 of the sheep of the United States 
are of Merino foundation. The Merino is the 
sheep of the range country, hardy in large 
herds, of long life, though of slow maturity, 
a,ble to Avithstand more of ^^ grief than the 
mutton breeds, and, most important to the 
ranchm.en, holding their fleeces to quite an age, 
whereas under range conditions mutton breeds 
soon become light shearers. However, it is 
not now believed among Western ranchmen 
that the Merino should be bred pure for their 
pu Impose. They use large numbers of mutton 
rams and aim to keep in all their ewes a 
strain of mutton blood, from % to %, which 
they find makes the ewes better mothers, being 
more prolific and having a stronger milk flow. 
Lambs from such ewes, sometimes from pure- 
bred mutton rams, form the major part of 
the supplies received in our great markets 
from Auoaist till June. A flock of ewes from 



FINE-V(^OOL BREEDS. 25 

Merino mothers and a good sire of one of tlie 
mutton breeds are almost ideal for use upon 
the faiTQ. hardy, healthy, great milkers, good 
sliearers. When again topped by a blocky, 
mutton-bred sire they produce lambs that are 
hard to excel. 

There are a number of families of Merinos. 
The American breeders divide them Into three 
general classes— the Spanish or American Me- 
rino, the smallest in size and heaviest in fleece 
of any; these sheep were once excessively wrin- 
kled (wool grows upon wrinkles, thus the wool- 
bearing capacity is increased). They usually 
have a considerable amount of yolk in the 
wool, though by no means the excessive amount 
that was once common. During recent years 
the American Merino has undergone quite an 
evolution, obedient to the command of its 
breeders, and has a better developed leg, a 
stronger back, a better sprung rib, more vigor 
and stamina than before and has, I think, lost 
little in fleece-bearing powers. 

The American Merinos are the m.ost highly 
specialized of all sheep, their wool being best 
and most abundant. Their breeders do not 
claim that they are mutton sheep, though they 
do make good mutton; but not so profitably 
as some lighter shearing breeds. 

DELAINE MERINOS AND BLACK TOPS. 

These two families have been bred bv se- 
lection from the original Spanish; the Black 
Tops from the importation of 1802, the De- 
laines from the Black Top foundation, with 
some outcrosses of other Merino blood. The 



26 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

idea in developing these two families lias been 
to secure a larger sheep than the original 
Merino, a better feeder, a hardier sheep and 
with a ^^ Delaine' ' wool. This wool should 
have parallel fibers of sufficient length for 
combing purposes. There is unquestionable 
merit in these sheep and in the hands of some 
breeders they approach closely to the mutton 
type without losing their valuable fleeces. De- 
laines are hardy, healthy when rightly man- 
aged, their lambs from mutton sires are su- 
perior for the market and a well managerl 
flock of either Delaines or Black Tops has 
never been unprofitable. The name ''Black 
Top'' was given by the originator of the type 
because his best sheep had a dark crust on 
the outside of the fleece, composed of oil 
and dirt, this crust keeping out weather and 
sersdng to shelter the sheep. It is doubtful, 
however, if sheep should be required to carry 
shelter from rain on their backs. 

EAMBOUILLETS. 

Nearly two centuries ago the French gov- 
ernment began importing Merino ewes from 
Spain and then was laid the foundation of 
the breed that is called the ''French Merino," 
or "Rambouillet," after the village in France 
where the stud flock has been kept. With dif- 
ferent feeds, different ideals and selection, the 
breed has become quite different from the 
other families of Merinos, having much greater 
size and a different t^^pe of wool, with coarser 
fiber, though yet a Merino wool. 



> 

I— I 

o 

O 

a 

h- 1 




. FINE-WOOL BREEDS. 29 

Tlie iiambouillet is perliaijs tlie most pop- 
ular today of all the Merinos, great numbers 
being found on the Western ranges, where 
there are also great breeding establishments. 
Here thousands of ]3ure-bred rams are grown. 
Fashions change even on the ranges and at 
present there is inquiry for Delaines, and many 
rams of mixed Delaine and Rambouillet blood 
are used, besides some with an infusion of 
the blood of the American Merino. Eambouil- 
lets are truly wonderful sheep, of great size 
and unlimited capacity to consume food. With 
a top of mutton rams they produce great lambs 
or make superb wethers. 

Eambouillets have been grown profitably for 
50 years in Ohio. There are indeed some farms 
that have been stocked with these sheep con- 
tinuously for that length of time, which is 
unusual in America. In recent years the breed 
has been considerably improved by fresh 
importations and by careful matings, so that 
both form and fleece are better than formerly. 
The Eastern Rambouillet growers have for 
some years enjoyed a very profitable trade in 
rams which they have sent to the Western 
ranges. However, the large Western breeders 
are absorbing much of that trade of late, so 
that only the choicest rams are in demand for 
Western shipments. A good flock of Eambouil- 
lets will pay for their wool and mutton, and 
Rambouillet ewes make a most admirable basis 
for a cross-bred flock. 

Rambouillet and Delaine Merinos have the 
ability to conceive early and drop their lambs 



80 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

iu fall or winter. Many iiambouillet breeders 
make a practice of lambing as many of their 
ewes as possible in the fall and early winter 
months, thns getting the young things for- 
ward to a good state of growth and develop- 
ment before spring and summer come to bring 
their problems of management. The early 
lamb is often worth double the late one, be- 
cause of the superior healthfulness and vigor 
of those that escape the troubles of parasitism, 
so distressing to those of late birth. 

This habit of early weaning also comes in 
good hand when the Merino ewes are used 
as mothers for cross-bred "hot house" lambs, 
and many growers of these winter lambs use 
Merino mothers, though the half-blood Merino 
ewe is better. In truth she is near to per- 
fection for this purpose. 

It is a curious fact that many old men suc- 
ceed fairly well with Merinos who can not 
make mutton sheep thrive at all. The Merino 
will withstand more neglect than the English 
breeds. It will endure fairly well a winter 
ration of bright straw and a little added grain 
with the run of a hill pasture. Formerly thou- 
sands were wintered on pasture with no feed- 
ing at all throughout the hill region of Ohio 
and Pennsylvania. It was thought that if 
thev had access to hazel brush, where they 
might shelter and browse a little and the grass 
was not too closely cropped in fall, they would 
do well enough. Treated in this manner they 
must lamb late in the spring, and they do sur- 
vive and shear quite good fleeces, whereas any 



FINE-WOOL. BREEDS. 31 

bi^eed of mutton sheep so poorly fed would 
hardly show any profit at all. 

It is often quite difficult for men who have 
spent years of their lives growing Merinos 
under the let-alone, outdoor system to take 
another breed and make it thrive at all. They 
can not bring themselves to give the feed, 
shelter and attention that English breeds de- 
mand. And with Merinos, kindness and care 
are usually well repaid. There are hill regions 
where the flock may be out of doors almost 
the whole year, but the grazing should be 
supplemented by a regular allowance of grain 
or early-cut hay, and it is well if the flock can 
be sheltered from chilling winter's rains. 



CHAPTER II. 



MUTTON BEEEDS. 

All of our breeds excepting the Merinos and 
the Tunis come from England. There the pe- 
culiar character of the country and the mental 
traits of the people have united to create a 
number of breeds, each having its especial ex- 
cellence for a certain purpose and soil. The 
Englishman's ideal in animal form runs, as 
it does in architecture, to the square, the level, 
the rectangular. His sheep, his beef cattle 
and his swine all partake of the same char- 
acteristics in form. To successfully judge 
Merino sheep one must be a student of the 
breed; to judge the mutton breeds practically 
well one need only to know what is a good 
animal, after the model of the Angus cow or 
the Berkshire hog. Add the wool and certain 
fancy points, such as the covering of wool over 
the head, the size and set of ear, the shape of 
nose and the coloring and all is told. The 
novice in sheep breeding, if he knows Angus 
cattle or Berkshire or Poland-China swine, need 
have no hesitation in attempting to select a 
flock of breeding ewes, if he can see them 



o 

H 
O 
Q 
W 
> 

M 

o 

w 

CI 

O 
I— I 

M 

:^ 

o 

o 



O 

w 




MUTTON BREEDS. 35 

without their fleeces. In fact, the owner will 
betray his consternation belore the novice hafr 
selected half a dozen and remark, "You may 
not know much about sheep but 1 can't let 
you select from my flock." 

The English breeds are naturally divided 
into classes of Downs, Long-Wools and Moun- 
tain breeds. 

THE DOWNS. 

In the south of England is a chain of chalky 
hills, covered with tine, short grass. Since 
history began there has been on these hills 
a race of short-wooled sheep; in their early 
history, with horns. Erom this old type has 
come the Southdown, the Hampshire Down, 
the Sussex, Oxford, Shropshire Downs and the 
Dorset horned. 

SOUTHDOWNS. 

This sheejj is a striking illustration of what 
the genius of man can do. Before the day 
of George the Third the unimproved Downs 
of Sussex were "of small size and bad shape, 
long in neck, low at both ends, light in shoul- 
der, narroAv at the fore end, and shaped like 
a soda w^ater bottle, small in front and heavier 
in the middle; large of bone, but boasting a 
big leg of mutton. The fleece was not so close 
and finn as now. ' ' 

Once the Southdown was horned but now 
there is seldom a scur to remind you of the 
past. Today the breed is one of the most 
perfectly formed breeds in existence. The 



36 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

lIilo is but mediuiu to small, but so compact 
and thick-fleslied are these sheep and so close 
to the ground that tlieir weights greatly as- 
tonish those who are unacquainted with the 
breed. The Southdown has a straight back, a 
thick, muscular neck, bespeaking vitality, a 
well sprung rib, giving a rotundity of form and 
a well filled leg of mutton. The character of 
the mutton is of the best, being fine-grained, 
well marbled with fat, and lean and tender, 
sweet and juicy. The wool is short, thick, 
elastic, of excellent quality, though not so 
abundant as in some breeds. Southdowns 
are very vigorous, hardy, ambitious, good for- 
agers, good feeders, always fat if given oppor- 
tunity, more easily kept in health than some 
breeds and the rams are excellent for cross 
breeding, especially where early lambs are de- 
sired. 

There are not so many breeders of South- 
downs in America as the merit of the breed 
would deserve. It is one of the easiest of 
all breeds to maintain in high-class condition. 
There is little tendency toward deterioration, 
though there is great difficulty in bringing 
about change or improvement in type. This 
is no doubt owing in x>art to the fact that the 
breed is absolutely pure, no admixture or in- 
fusion of other blood having ever taken place. 
Therefore, there is less variation of type and 
it is easier to have a flock of Southdowns of 
uniform appeaTance and character than of 
most breeds. 

In Sussex the author has studied Southdown 



MUTTON BREEDS. 37 

management on their native sod and observed 
these features of their practice. Dry ewes in 
summer time were often grazed on the hill 
pastures, but under the care and observatioi? 
of shepherds at least part of every day. Ewes 
suckling lambs were in hurdles eating sowed 
crops of clovers, vetches and grass, with a lit- 
tle bite of grain, while the lambs "ran for- 
ward'' in other hurdle-enclosed bits of graz- 
ing. As protection against sun the lambs had 
small squares of canvas stretched over the 
corners of their pen. The lambs got a full 
allowance of ''corn and cake;" that is, grain 
with broken linseed oil cake, which is much 
fed in that land and seldom ground into meal. 
The lambs were as fat and round as little 
pigs and were sold as they ripened, week, by 
week, at the London market. Of this system 
of hurdle grazing we will speak later at more 
length. 

There are few breeds with more adaptability 
than the Southdown. It is especially useful on 
high-priced land and near markets that de- 
mand fancy lamb mutton. Though a South- 
down flock will not shear so much as some 
others of the Down family it is questionable 
whether there is a more i>rofitable breed for 
the production of fat lambs to be marketed 
either from their mothers' sides in late spring 
or early summer or to be fed later and mar- 
keted at the age of eight to ten months. Their 
smaller size is in their favor, seeing that small 
and very perfect lambs, well finished, command 
a premium always. Southdown ewes are pro- 



38 



SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 



lific and excellent mothers, and the lambs are 
strong at birth. 

SHROPSHIKES. 

Farther to the north in England originated 
the Shropshire sheep. Not unlike many pas- 
tures of our country are those about Shrews- 
bury, affording strong grass, based upon lime- 
stone and clay loams. The Shropshire had its 
origin in a mingling of the bloods of a native 
black or brown-faced and homed sheep called 




FARM TRAINING FOR THE SHOW-RING. 



? 1 



from its habitat the ''Morfe Common sheep 
They were small and bore light fleeces of not 
more than 2 lbs. Infusion of Leicester, Cots- 
wold and Southdown blood worked a great 
change, practically obliterating the blood of 
the earlier parents and bringing at first great 
diversity of type. Careful selection toward a 



MUTTON BREEDS. 39 

pretty well defined ideal had by 1853 resulted 
in fixing a type and it was then advised that 
the Eoyal Agricultural Society recognize them 
as a distinct breed. Since that time they 
have gone steadily forward in improvement 
and this is especially notable in recent years, 
when the breed seems really to' have reached 
its ultimate perfection. It would certainly 
be difficult to suggest any desirable modifica- 
tion of the well bred Shropshire's form, fleece 
or character. The breed is perhaps the most 
popular in the world today and has the larg- 
est number of registering breeders. 

The Shropshire is a medium-sized sheep, 
rams weighing from 175 to 225 lbs. and ewes 
125 to 170 lbs. They shear well, considerably 
better than the Southdown, and tlie wool is 
of excellent quality. The lambs fatten well 
and should go to market from their mothers' 
sides, else they may reach too great weights 
for the top of the market. 

The Shropshire ideal in form is close to that 
of the Southdown, with a little greater size 
and a darker head and legs, though not so 
dark as the Hampshire or Oxford Downs. The 
fleece is longer than in the Southdown and is 
not usually so close-set or dense. Certainly 
there is no more beautiful sight than a well 
bred and well kept flock of Shropshires, the 
fine matronly ewes with their white fleeces set 
off by the brown of heads, ears and legs. Their 
mutton is ])erliai)S not quite so good as the 
Southdown, but there is not much difference 
in this respect, and they are equally prolific, 



40 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

thoiigli the lambs may not liave quite tlie same 
vigor at birth nor do they usually fatten at 
quite so early an age. 

Tlie one difficulty with the Shropshire sheep 
in Anieriea is the careless and ignorant shep- 
herd who permits his flock to become infested 
with parasites or allows his ewes to become 
so fat that they do not breed well, and such 
a man might not succeed with any breed. 

HAMPSHIEES. 

The study of how this great breed was orig- 
inated is a most interesting one, though rather 
too long and complicated to be entered fully 
into here. The Hampshire is the result of 
skillful mingling of the bloods of an old white- 
faced horned race, called the Wiltshire, the 
Southdown, the Sussex and probably the Cots- 
wold breeds. During many years men worked 
gTadually toward an ideal, making skillful 
mating's and discarding the inferior offspring 
as well as those which went toward the wrong 
type. The result is astonishing, for the Hamp- 
shire breeds now remarkably true to type and 
that type quite unlike any of the ancestry in- 
volved in its creation. 

The Hampshire is the largest and heaviest 
of the Down breeds, and is only excelled by 
tlie Lincoln in weight and occasionally by the 
Cotswolds, among the long-wooled races. It 
has dark brown or black points, with bold 
countenance, and a large ear, set on rather low 
and standing well out to the side. The bone 
is large, limbs especially strong and well set 



MUTTON BREEDS. 41 

on; fleece fine and ^vhite. It presents a very 
strilving appearance, tlie rams having bold, 
Roman countenances, and the ewes character- 
istic strong but feminine faces. 

The Hampshire is essentially the sheep for 
the arable farm, fitted by long habit to being 
l>ut in hurdles, able to consume a large amount 
of food and to make from it good mutton at 
an early age. The Hampshire lamb is famed 
for its early maturity and great weight. There 
is no breed that excels the Hampshire in this 
respect. Well kept Hampshires are among the 
most profitable sheep in the world. 

The writer recalls with great pleasure some 
days spent in the Hampshire growing country 
of England. It was much of it a soil of only 
moderate fertility, resting on chalk, the farm.s 
of fairly good size. One in especial of 1,400 
acres he recalls to mind, for on that farm were 
2,500 magnificent Ham])shire sheep and lambs. 
Most of them were in hurdles and following 
the liurdles were seen great crops of grain. 

Til ere seemed to be not a single sheep or 
lamb on this farm that was not in perfect 
health and vigor. 

A man ambitious to do the best possible 
thing with sheep can take up the Hampshire 
breed with good courage, for they have in 
them [)ossibi.lities in the way of great and 
i-apid growth beyond most breeds; perhaps 
bej^ond any other breed. On the other hand 
few breeds degenerate into more unsightly 
^'weeds'' than badly kept and diseased Hamp- 
shires. The Hampshire ram is often used for 



42 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

cross breeding and gets fine, vigorous lambs 
nicely marked with black points. 

OXFORDS. 

The Oxford is in appeaTance a large Shrop- 
shire, with a coarser and more open fleece, 
a larger bone, usually a darker face and 
coarser ear. It is the result of crossing the 
Cots wold and Hampshire types, begun about 
the year 1833. The Oxford is a noble sheep, 
having some of the characteristics of the 
Hampshires; is a good sire with which to cross 
breed and is often used for that purpose. There 
is need of a little more care in management 
with these slieep to avoid parasitism than 
with some breeds, but no man who has grown 
Oxfords and kept them healthy but has found 
them profitable. 

THE LONG-WOOLS. 

LEICESTEES. 

The Leicester is an old breed, little known 
in the United States at the present time, but 
much kept in Canada. It is notable as being 
the first recorded sheep to feel the improve- 
ment of a genius in breeding, Robert Bake- 
well having undertaken the improvement of 
the breed in about 1755. Bakewell conceived 
the idea of improving this old, coarse-boned, 
long-wooled breed. Just how he did it we 
would like to know and never will, but it was 
entirely by selection, so we are told, and he 



MUTTON BREEDS. 45 

evidently liad the master eye i'or seeing vir- 
tues in animals and knowing wliicli would be 
transmitted. He made such fame as a breeder 
of sheep that before his death liis rams were 
let for the season for as high as $2,000 each. 

Tlie Leicester is found in Canada and on 
some of our Western ranches. It is a large 
sheep, with white points and a hong, rather 
coarse wool. It is finely formed, with an es- 
pecially wide spread of rib, and has an ex- 
traordinary facility for taking on fat. ]n 
truth, it is a defect in the Leicester, according 
to modern idea, that it loads up too much 
with internal fat. Its best ]^lace in our econ- 
omy is in cross breeding. Leicester rams on 
Merino ewes produce superb feeders with a 
very good class of wool. 

COTSWOLDS. 

One of the most common breeds in parts 
of America thirty years ago was the Cots- 
wold. Common they still are in parts of 
the country. They a])ound in Canada and in 
some parts of the West, notably in Utah and 
Oregon. The Cotswold resembles the Leices- 
ter somewhat, being a large sheep v\ith white 
face and legs and long wool. The face may 
be grayish or even light brown, and there is 
a tuft of wool on the forehead. The wool is 
coarse but adapted to certain uses. Cots wolds 
make gain ])rofitably but are not adapted to 
the production of very young fat lambs. The 
best use of the breed is in cross breeding on 
ewes of Merino foundation, and for this pur- 



46 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

pose it lias been extensively used in Montana 
and other Western states. Cotswolds do not 
thrive when kept in large flocks in the East- 
ern states, thongli they are healthy In Canada, 
Oregon and other cooler regions. There is 
hardly any moi'e grand and stately slieep than 
the well bred and well fitted Cotswold as it 
appears at our great shows. 

LINCOLNS. 

Quite like the Cotswold is the Lincoln. To 
the careful observer, however, there is a con- 
siderable difference in the type. The Lincoln 
is the heaviest breed, probably, in the world, 
and in England Lincolns have been known to 
dress 90 lbs. per quarter. The wool is ex- 
traordinarily long, samples being shown of 21 
inches growth, and rams sometimes shear the 
extraordinary amount of 30 lbs. 

The new Lincoln sheep is the product of 
Leicester crosses upon the old Lincoln. He is 
truly a magnificent creature of the long-wooled 
character, requiring rich pastures and plenty 
of space. As a mutton slieep he is inferior to 
the Down breeds as far as quality is con- 
cerned, but for crossing purposes no class of 
sheep is in greater demand, and the highest 
prices in recent years have been paid by Ar- 
gentine buyers for Lincoln rams. In truth, 
the great mutton exporting business of Ar- 
gentina is based largely upon the use of Lin- 
coln blood on Merino foundation, and it i« 
not generally known that their sheep are far 
superior to our own in quality and are there- 



MUTTON BREP^DS. 47 

fore much more . acceptable in the British mar- 
kets. 

There is little doubt that when we have 
learned our trade better we will in turn use 
thousands of rams of both the Lincoln and Cots- 
wold breeds upon our range-bred ewes to pro- 



SOME OHIO DORSETS. 

duce mutton both for our own and the for- 
eign markets. 

DOESET HOENS. 

Properly, the Dorset belongs with the Downs 
and indeed the ancestors of the present Dorset 
Honis were much J ike the Wiltshire ances- 
tors of the Hampshire Down sheep. There is 
now little resemblance between the Dorset and 



48 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

the Hainpsliire breeds, though singularly 
enough each has taken up the same tieid of 
endeavor J tlie production of early lambs. The 
Hampshire lambs usually come at a later time 
than the Dorsets and do not go to market 
quite so young, but each has the habit of fat- 
tening at an early age, and the Dorset ewe 
has also the way of dropping her lambs at 
an earJier season than any other ewe. Then 
slie is the greatest milker of any of the sheej) 
tribe, and because of this large supply of 
milk, and because of their vigorous digestion 
and ability to use grain at an early age the 
Dorset iambs soon attain to good weights and 
are usually sold fat from their mothers' sides. 
In truth, it is not good practice to allow Dor- 
set lambs to attain to an age of above six to 
eight months, and most profit comes from sell- 
ing them at two to four months of age. 

The Dorset, like the Southdown, is of un- 
mixed ancestry, and is one of the most an- 
cient breeds in existence, though doubtless 
much changed by selection of modern and 
progressive breeders. Before cows were used 
in the dairy in Dorsetshire sheep were kept 
for their milk, which, no doubt, accounts in 
part for the wonderful milking powers of the 
Dorset ewe. In truth, many of these ewes are 
such large milkers that it is necessary to re- 
lieve them by hand stripping for a. few days 
after the lambs are born until they become 
able to take all the milk. 

Dorset Plonis are so named because both 
sexes have horns. The rains' lioiiis are large 



MUTTON BREEDS. 49 

and heavy and curved rather closely in front 
of the head; the ewes have light horns that 
should curve toward the front. It is a curious 
fact that Dorset ewes are as pugnacious as 
their armament would indicate, often attack- 
ing stray dogs and lacking almost altogetlier 
that timidity that characterizes other sheep. 
A sheep-killmg dog will sometimes kill Dor- 
set ewes, but it is not probable that any dog 
would begin a career of sheep-killing in a 
Dorset flock. 

The Dorsets have a form not unlike the 
SouthdoAvn, though generally more upstand- 
ing, and a similar fleece of close, strong wool, 
with an elastic fiber wliich is very wliite. They 
shear better than some mutton breeds and the 
wool is of the first quality. They are very 
docile and thrive in hurdles or on grass where 
proper care is taken to keep them from 
parasites. They have been introduced into 
several states of our country and have thriven 
wherever men have understood their require- 
ments, and have failed wherever in the hands 
of careless or ignorant shepherds. It is not- 
able that there are now produced in America 
under the conditions of the Eastern states as 
good Dorsets as there are in the world, where- 
as most of the other mutton breeds rely upon 
importations to maintain their quality. Dor- 
sets find their best use in America in the hill 
regions of the South, where early lambs are 
grown. They are favorites in Virginia, West 
Virginia and so far as tried in Kentucky, and 
in the Northern states they are largely used 



50 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

in the ''hot house'' lamb business. Dorsets 
are excellent for cross breeding, the lambs 
growing well and fattening readily, and cross- 
bred ewes from Merino mothers and Dorset 
sires form the best foundation for a flock for 
producing winter lambs. 

TPIE MOUNTAIN BREEDS. 

CHEVIOTS. 

The Cheviot is classed as a mountain breed, 
of which there are a number in England and 
Scotland, natives of the hill regions. The 
Cheviot is from the Cheviot hills in southern 
Scotland and northern England. It is a re- 
markably hardy, vigorous sheep, standing 
erect and alert, on strong legs, carrying ex- 
cellent mutton and a fine fleece of good wool, 
rather fine for a mountain breed. There is 
hardly anywhere a prettier sheep than the 
Cheviot. It has such an air of interest and 
intelligence and seems so wide-awake. The 
Cheviots have displaced the hardier Black- 
faced breed in all the lower and richer parts 
of Scotland, though in the colder and more 
heatheiy portions this ancient breed still holds 
its own. 

The Cheviot has a place in our land. . It 
is well adapted to grass farms, to hill regions 
and wherever sheep are required to make good 
mutton largely from pasture. 

Naturally the higher and cooler regions are 
best adapted to this sheep. The breed is 



MUTTON BREEDS. 51 

quite well represented in America and lias 
thriven in many parts of the country. It 
is in its favor that it is not too large, seeing 
that fat lambs, ]iot too lieavy, are now most in 
demand. 

BLACK-FACES. 

The writer feels that it would cause dis- 
appointment among his readers if he did not 
make some mention of this wonderful little 
Scotch Black-faced highland sheep. In their 
own land nothing can take their jjlace. They 
have the instincts of true wild animals. They 
love the high peaks and heathery slopes, and, 
scenting storms, are led by that same instinct 
to seek the shelter of the glens. These sheep • 
belong with the lands. They pass with the 
farm from one tenant to the other, when farais 
change liands. Their love of home is so great 
that when removed miles away they will often 
return straight across country to their old 
haunts, swimming rivers if need be to accom- 
plish their desire. 

The Black-faced sheep are small, moderately 
well formed, v/ith coarse, long wool. They make 
good mutton, which commands in British mar- 
kets a good price, being thought to have a 
gamey character. They are a comparatively 
new breed in Scotland, if we accept tradition, 
having existed there but about 140 years. From 
whence they came is a mystery. There are no 
slieep elsewhere in the v/orld like them, the 
Lonks and Berdwicks of northern England 
having most resemblance. They seem to be a 



52 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

spontaneous product, creation of environment, 
to feed those lieatliery hills. 

Of course they had to start from somewhere, 
and the legend that they swam ashore from 
some sinking ship of the Spanish Armada is 
liarmless and as good as any. The manage- 
ment of these hardy Black-faced sheep is sim- 
ple; every day the shepherd seeks to see each 
ewe of the flock, climbing high over heafher- 
clad hills with his dog at his side to accom- 
plish this. It is his part to be sure that none 
of the ewes have accidentally gotten upon their 
backs. They are shorn In June or July, being 
]3rought down to the farmstead for that pur- 
pose. It takes a good dog and an agile shep- 
herd to round them up and bring them down, 
and it is customary to tie their feet when they 
are shorn, since they struggle like wild things. 

In winter they are brought down to the 
fields and given a bite of hay and sometimes 
turnips. It is found, however, that too many 
turnips encourage a growth of horn in the un- 
born lamb that sometimes destroys both the 
unfortunate lamb and its mother. 

Thus it is seen that this most beautiful and 
})icturesque sheep is one that presents unusual 
difficulties to the would-be breeder in America. 
He must beware of overfeeding in winter ; he 
will find them hard to drive and pen; he will 
find them somewhat harder than other sheep 
to restrain within boundaries. And still there 
are situations, like the mountains in northern 
Ontario, in the higher regions of California, 
Oiegon and Washington, and along the coast 



MUTTON BREEDS. 55 

islands of Alaska where undoubtedly the nat- 
ural character of the Black-faced sheep would 
make it of great value. 

The writer has devoted this space to •the 
breed because of its connection with legend, 
song and story, which have given it a place in 
almost every man's heart, and because he 
hopes to coimt loyal Scots among his readers. 
He will never forget his days spent among 
the Lammermoor hills of southern Scotland, 
where the Border Leicesters occupied the lower 
slopes and the Black-faces climbed the heathery 
heights and their lambs played about the feet 
of the Twinlaw Cairns. It was a land of peace 
and quiet, of faithfulness and almost reli- 
gious devotion to duty. The old steward of the 
fann had lived there in that capacity for 50 
years. His son and grandson worked on the 
farm. High upon the slope just below the 
plantation of fir wood, stood a low stone cot- 
tage, beaten with rain and wind, where lived 
the faithful old shepherd and his son, and juBt 
above his cottage began a great mountain pas- 
ture, enclosed by stone walls, where there were 
bits of moors from which peat was dug, and 
great slopes of heather, which is a smaU, fine 
and dense-growing bush on which sheep can 
subsist. Would that we could implant upon 
our own soil some such spirit as pervaded this 
place, the quiet and peace, the simple living 
. and high, manly thinking, the honesty and de 
votion to duty! 

There are other breeds represented in the 
United States. The Tunis has its adherents 



56 SHEEP PARMINC; IN AMERICA. 

anion i^- early lajiib growers; there are Persian 
I'at-tailed slieep in Texas, C^ilifornia and Ne- 
vada; there are some of the mountain breeds 
found here and there, hut we will not here 
take them up. Among the breeds described 
the would-be sheep owner can choose one and 
he should stick to that one. Cross-breeding 
is permissible for the market, but let no one 
undertake at this day to create a new breed of 
sheep by mingling the bloods of breeds al- 
ready having received the care and thought 
of generations of skillful breeders. One man^s 
lifetime is too short to establish a breed, and 
there seems small need of another. 



9 



CHAPTER III. 



SELP]CTION AND MANAGEMENT. 

KESTOCKING A FARM WITH SHEEP. 

Supposing that we have decided to em bar!: 
in the sheep industry, and have decided on a 
breed, the next consideration is liow to set 
about filling the void of sheep upon our farm. 
Farms differ in size, conformation and soil; 
conditions vary greatly, so that no rule can be 
laid down that will be applicable to all places, 
yet there are a few facts that are of general 
application. In England and Franco there are 
farms ahnost entirely devoted to slieep; they 
carry little other stock, and grow crops mainly 
to be fed to the flock, with only grain in rota- 
tat ion. 

'i'hese farms are very profitable vdien well 
managed, and greatly build the soil and the 
fortunes of the owners. "We can not vet advo- 
cate the attempt to establish in cuv l.-nid such 
sheep farms as these, at least the growth of 
such n farm must be very gradual, and any 
attempt at to once establish such a one would 
result disastrously in nine cases out of ten. 
We have no class of expert shepherds such as 

(57) 



58 SHEEP FARMINC! JN AMERICA. 

woiii'l be needed to care for a floelv on sucli a 
farm, nor would the importation of .British 
shepjierds help us, for we have problems that 
they know not of, and our range of feeds is 
quite different from theirs. "With a right aii- 
der standing of the matter and a gradual adap- 
tation of our farms to sheep growing, and a 
habit of care once formed we can devote ^-zhoie 
farms to sheep as well as our Brltisli cousins, 
but that is a. work that must come with time 
and experience. 

At present, then, the farmer should start ^\ath 
a small flock, letting it increase gradually, and 
trying to grow in knowledge and experience ;is 
the flock grows in size. 

Nor would it be wise or prudent to begin 
with a flock of pure-bred ewes. A few pure- 
breds should be purchased, say ten or twelve, 
the rest of the flock may well be of grades. 
The ram should always be pure-bred and of as 
good quality as can be secured. He is half the 
flock, and if he is mated with grades and is 
required to supply all their deficiencies, he has 
good need to be a good one. 

SELECTION OF THE EAM. 

Clioose not an extra large ram, but one of 
medjum size for the breed selected. Size does 
not always go with vigor or prepotency, or 
ability to transmit good qualities. It is rare 
that the largest ram of a lot has the inc*s: vigor 
or quality. Choose a ram that has short legs 
(they go with early maturity), with wide 
breast, avoiding the rams where ^^hoth leg§ 



SELECTION AND MANAGEMENT. 59 

come out of the same hole in the body," choose 
the one with well sprung rib and a level, 
straight back, looking of course for a good leg 
of niutton, which is after all, about ail that 
there is in a sheep, from the butch.er's stand- 
point. Then be sure that there is a thick, mus- 
cular neck, a bright, quick eye, a brisk move- 
ment, denoting vim and vigor. Such a ram 
will leave his impress indelibly upon the Hock. 
If one can not personally select his ram, he 
may often leave it to the good judgment ot the 
seller, specifying what is wanted, and the nov- 
ice will generally get better service from tlie 
honorable vendor than were he to attempt to 
select for himself. 

Fleece is of course important, and minor 
points, such as markings and absence of scurs 
or horns on all breeds save Merinos aud Dor- 
sets. But first of all in importance is it to get 
a ram boiling over with vim and vigor. 

A ram of such character will readily care 
for 40 or 50 ewes if liand coupling is prac- 
ticed, allowing but one service to each ewe. 
He may indeed go to more than that when in 
his prime, aged from one year to four or five. 

SELECTION or THE EWES. 

Pure-bred ewes may be selected much as the 
ram is, avoiding overgrown individuals, and 
seeking for uniformity of type and evidence of 
perfect health. In buying any sheep look well 
to the skin, that it be pink in color and the 
fleece bright and elastic, for a pale skin and 
sunken fleece are sure indications of lack of 



60 



SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 



health and sliould invariahly he rejected, no 
matter how good the hlood or breeding. The 
grades that are to be made the body of the 
flock may be of Merino foundation, with ex- 
cellent expectation of success. If these are 
not to be found near at home, they may often 
be bought of good quality at the great markets 
when discarded by the ranchmen. Usually 
ewes are sent to market because of their age 




DORSET EWES. 



and beginning lack of teeth so that it is not 
]:)rofitable to retain them for more than two 
lamb crops on the farm. They will thrive for 
that time and having saved the best of their 



SELECTION AND MANAGEMENT. 61 

ewe lambs, there is thus laid the foundation of 
a useful grade flock, while the mothers may be 
fattened and sent to market. 

While foundation ewes may be had from the 
markets, coming thence from the great West- 
ern ranges, it should not be overlooked that 
the native stock is generally better and to be 
preferred, when available. W^estern ewes hav- 
ing never been exposed to parasitic infection, 
are healthy, true, but when brought to Eastern 
farms and" then exposed to these dangers, they 
prove less resistant than natives. The climate 
of the Eastern states is worse than they are 
accustomed to, and their breeding is apt to be 
uncertain. In no case should one buy ewes 
with perceptible Mexican blood in them, as 
these sheep readily revert to a very fixed and 
stubborn type, useful on the desert, but too 
primitive for good farm sheep husbandry. 

It is unwise to select ewes shearing too 
heavy fleeces. A moderately heavy fleece be- 
tokens the stronger sheep with greater feeding 
capacity. Select that sort. Choose the short- 
legged ewes, with good backs, and as thick as 
you can find them. 

The best time of the year to stock a farm 
with sheep is in the early fall. Getting the 
ewes home then, you have time to make their 
acquaintance while work is not crowding on 
the farm. Then you can see to the mating, 
and during the first winter things will go as 
you plan, and you are certain of one good lamb 
crop. Your troubles will not begin for six or 
eight months. They need not begin at all if 



62 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

you will observe carefully some rules for avoid- 
ance of parasites, to be laid down later. 

GETTING HOME WITH THE FLOCK. 

The writer remembers with delight the day 
when he drove to Woodland Farm his first 
flock of ewes. It was a fine sunny day in No- 
vember. The sheep were well selected and 
round and plump, all young ewes. They trav- 
eled willingly along the country road through 
a quiet neighborhood where great oaks over- 
arched the way and stopping now and then to 
browse the green grass among the purpling 
wild asters. 

The writer was but 'a boy then, newiy Y\^ed- 
ded, filled with high hopes and dreaming brave 
dreams of the future. The j^oung wife met him 
and together they drove home the little flock! 
Eappy beginning it proved to be, tliough many 
lessons remained to be learned and many dis- 
couragements to be fought tln^ougli, yet the 
coming of the flock meant the beginning of 
the upbuilding of the old fann and of the for- 
tunes of its owners. 

IMPORTANCE OF DIPPING. 

When the flock comes home the first duty 
is to give it a thorough dipping. There are two 
reason for this: the one that there may be 
ticks upon the sheep; the other because of 
danger from scab germs. Any sheep shipped 
by rail or penned in stock yards or railway 
stock pens is liable to be infected with scab 
germs. One or two scab insects on a sheep 



SELECTION AND MANAGEMENT. 



63 



may multipl}^ until the entire flock is scabby in 
a few months and entail great suffering upon 
the sheep and loss upon the owner. Prevention 
is easy and cheap, though cure after the dis- 
ease has progressed far is harder. Another 
reason for dipping is the sheep tick. This is a 
common pest upon farms and greatly inter- 
feres with the thrift of sheep, while it is en- 




DIPPING SHEEP AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN. 

tirely preventable, and in truth upon the farm 
of the writer with a thousand sheep there are 
years . when not a single tick is to be found. 
Sheep ticks so far as we know inhabit no 
other animals and once rid of them you will 
remain rid of them unless you buy infested 
sheep or carry ticks upon your own clothing 
or they are brought by sheaxers. 
It is very easy and inexpensive entirely to 



64 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

rid a flock of ticks and as easy to prevent the 
attack of scab. 

SCAB INSECT. 

This is a minute form of parasitic insect too 
small to he easily discovered with the naked 
eye, which by burrowing in the skin, or, rath- 
er, by irritating tlie skin and causing it to 
form a crust by its own exudations beneatli 
which it burrows, greatly afflicts the sheep, 
causing loss of wool, intense itcliing, loss of 
flesh, and in the end frequently brings death 
from the result of the distress and emaciation 
consequent upon its disturbance. 

'J^he scab germ multiplies with fearful rapid- 
ity, each female laying in two or three days 15 
eggs, of which ten will hatch females and ^ve 
males. These eggs hatch and soon mature in- 
s( (ts begin laying eggs. Gerlach, the German 
authority, says that in 15 days one female will 
become the mother of 15, after 30 days of 150, 
after 45 days of 1,500, after 60 days of 15,000. 
Up to this time there has not been much seen 
of the result of the disease, but here begins 
the wholesale onslaught of the legion upon 
their hosts, for in 75 days there are 150,000, 
and in 90 days 1,500,000! Now let them alone 
for a little longer and the result is sufficiently 
terrifying. 

The symptoms of scab are first the uneasi- 
ness of the sheep, which reaches around to the 
affected part (that is apt to be on the shoulder, 
neck or side, though it may appear in almost 
any part, but wherever it appears it causes in- 



SELECTION AND MANAGEMENT. 65 

tense itcliiiig) and bites at the wool 
or ]>aws with its foot trying to scratcli the 
spot. If now you will earefnlly examine the 
animal you will find under the wool at this 
spot of infection the skin whitened and per- 
haps exuding a watery secretion. One can not 
with the naked eye see the scab insects at 
work. A little later this spot if untreated be- 
comes a veritable seal) and the adjacent re- 
gions are attacked. It rapidly spreads through- 
out the flock, the affected sheep rubbing against 
posts and racks, dislodging mites that fasten 
in tuni upon other sheep. 

To cure scab thorough dipping is necessary. 
To prevent it all shee]> should be well dipped 
after every T*ailway journey or exposure in 
infected yards or pens. Dipping for preven- 
tion is cheap and easy. Dipping for cure is 
not so much harder. The main thing is to dip, 
and dip thoroughly. 

THE DIPPING VAT. 

This should l)e a simple trough of vrood or 
metal or concrete, 16 inches wide, 4 feet deep 
and as long as one wishes to build. The short- 
er the vat the slower the process of dipping, 
as the sheep when scabby must soak for two 
minutes. For a fann vat a length of 10 feet 
or 12 will be ample, as time can be allowed 
them thoroughly to soak. The vat must be 
narrow so that the sheep can not turn around 
in it. It must be deep so that each sheep can 
be plunged clear in all over so that no spot 
will remain untreated. It is not necessary to 



66 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

lower the slieep into the vat or to raise them 
out again ; they may as well be tlirown in or 
made to jnm]i in at one end, and that end of 
the vat sliouhi go down perpendicularly; at 
the other end there must be a gradual incline 
up which they can walk. For a small flock the 
bottom level of the vat need not be more than 
four feet long, with an incline l^eginning there 
and running gradually out to the level and to 
a draining platform from which the drip 
should be collected and discharged into the 
vat again. A width at the bottom of 6 inches 
is ample, as only the feet go clear down and 
the less width the less liquor is required to 
charge the vat. In case there is genuine and 
serious affection of scab, the sheep should be 
held rigidly in for two minutes, and in that 
time the liead should be immersed briefly 
twice. If there is only suspected infection, 
however, and not yet any outbreak, the sheep 
may be run through as rapidly as convenient, 
being only sure that each one is completely 
immersed in the liquor, for they will remain 
wet foT 24 hours at least after emerging from 
the dip. In a practice of many years the 
writer has never had scab break out in a flock 
thoroughly dipped once by simply running the 
sheep through. There are other essential con- 
ditions to be obser\^ed, however, which will be 
mentioned now. 

The dip must be hot. This does not mean 
warm, nor boiling, but as hot as the operator 
can endure to plunge in his bare arm. It is 
better to test the temperature in this manner 



SELECTION AND MANAGEMENT. 67 

than by use of a thermometer. If the latter 
is used a temperature of 110 deg. Fahrenheit 
will he about right, but the bare skin is the 
best thermometer. 

The water used must be softened or ''broke''. 
To do this use ordinary concentrated lye, 
enough to make the water a little biting and 
give it an oily feel like soap. This is an inex- 
pensive |)rocess. 

The dip, wJiatever it is, must be used of good 
strength. There are various good preparations 
in use, most of which are effective if used of 
sufficient strength. 

On the farm of the writer the coal tar prep- 
arations are used almost always, because they 
prove effective and cheap, and are pleasant to 
operate with. They are healing to the skin 
and effectually dissipate any tendency to eye 
disease and are sure death to all forms of in- 
sect life whatever. These coal tar dips are 
given various names as ''Zenoleum,'' ''Nap- 
tholeum,'' ''Daytholeum," etc., and are simi- 
lar in composition and effect. The directions 
often say to use them at a strength of 1 to 100, 
that is of one part of dip to 100 parts of water; 
this is not safe in combating scab, and as the 
cost of dipping is mostly in labor, the writer 
always uses them at a strength of one to forty, 
and has had no failure to cure every sort of 
parasitism and has never injured a sheep by 
its use. 

In truth, one winter when scab broke out 
among some undipped sheep (that had been 
dipped in Chicago, but imperfectly) and the 



68 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

i'aiiii floek became infected, we dipped all in 
the niiddJe of winter, turning* back to the old 
quarters, and cured each case effectually, so 
that there has never been a reappearance of 
the disease upon the farm. The dipping was 
repeated in ten days to give chance for eggs 
to hatch. 

This dipping so thoroughly also eradicates 
ticks which is no small matter. 

REGULAR DIPPING OF THE FARM FLOCK. 

While new sheep added to the flock should 
be dip])ed whenever they arrive, barring ex- 
ceedingly cold weather, the regular flock needs 
its animal bath, luid lliis should be given imme- 
diately after shearing, when ewes and lamhs 
may all be dipped at a nominal cost. It takes 
nearly a gallon of liquid to dip a yearling of 
medium size with its fleece on, but to dip a 
shorn sheep takes hot more than a quart, and 
the little lamb a small amount. Hi is annual 
cleaning' up prevents ticks getting foothold 
and heads off a lot of other troubles, such as 
sore eyes and mouths, canker of teats, and 
sheep lice. 

It is not a troublesome operation to dip a 
flock of sheep. The water should be conveni- 
ently at hand and some means of heating it. 
An open kettle of 30 to 40 gallons capacity 
will serve if nothing else is convenient ; red hot 
irons may be thrown into the tank to heat 
what is left from a ]>revious dipping; there 
should be a large pen to hold the sheep and a 
small one close to the tank for a catching pen. 



SELECTION AND MANAGEMENT. 7l 

Just at the end of the tank there may be an 
incline about 3 feet long covered with smooth 
sheet metal, and this may be greased so that 
when a sheep steps on it or is lifted upon it, 
it will easily slide down to the plunge. 

A foice of five men, two of wliom keep the 
dip mixed and replenished, and three of whom 
put in and take out sheep, will readily di^J 
100 in an hour, though if they have their 
fleeces on they should drain for a longer time 
than would inake this practicable. It is not 
often necessary to assist the sheep to climb out, 
but there should be one man ready and watch- 
ing with care to see that all are fully sub- 
merged and none stay in too long. The writer 
/las never seen pregnant ewes, liandled with 
care in the dipping vat, aboii their lambs, and 
has frequently dipped 500 without killing or 
injuring one. 

The cheapest tank is made of galvanized 
iron. The best is made of concrete, which will 
endure forever if rightly made. 

SUMMARY OF DIPPING. 

Dip every sheep when it comes to the farm 
as soon as it is rested, especially with care 
when it may have come by rail. 

AVhen scab infection is suspected, but none 
is visible, dip once by simple and complete im- 
mersion in a dip hot and strong enough. 

When scab is already in evidence let the af- 
fected sheep soak in the dip for two minutes, 
first having rubbed and loosened up the scabs. 
After ten days dip again; always turn freshly 



72 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

dipped sheep into their sheds so that they may 
rub their wet fleeces against the wood work 
and disinfect that. 

Dip tlie ^hole flock every spring if there 
are ticks, immediately after shearing, being- 
sure that no sheep or lamb escapes. 

After the flock is clean it will remain clean 
if newly bought sheep are dipped before being 
added to it. There is no necessity to dip a 
clean flock. 

At shearing time should the OAvner shear his 
own sheep and there be but two or three ticks 
to each animal he should cut tliem in two Yvdth 
the shears and dip the lambs. 

There is no more need of having ticks on a 
sheep farm than there is of wolves. 

FALL TEEATMENT OF THE EWE FLOCK. 

The ewes being brought presumably to new and 
fresh pastures and rid of their vermin thrive ad- 
mirably. If grass is not abundant they ought to 
have a little extra feed at this time, as it is 
Nature's way to make them gain then. A 
field of rape in which they may run, alternat- 
ing at their pleasure with grass, makes them 
improve rapidly. Pumpkins fed on grass, 
seeds and all, are excellent for the ewes. Not 
only are the pumpkins good feed, but their 
seeds, besides being nourishing, have in them 
great medicinal virtues. Pumpkin seeds are 
efficient vermifuges. One of the best treat- 
ments for tape worm in the human subject is 
the infusion of pumpkin seeds. Worms destroy 



SELECTION AND MANAGEMENT. 73 

more sheep than dogs do, and it must be the 
constant study of the shepherd to avoid them. 

The reason for desiring the flock to thrive at 
this time is that it is near the mating season, 
and if the sheep are in tine, thrifty condition, 
they will the more readily conceive and will 
drop a greater number of twins. 

Yet another reason is that a sheep that 
starts into winter in good thrift comes through 
nmch stronger with less feed than one that 
starts in in poor flesh. 

A handful of grain fed in October or No- 
vember is worth a peck of feed to a thin ewe 
in January, not that the flock should be neg- 
lected later on, l)ut it is essential that sheep 
should enter winter well fortified and strong. 

MATING. 

Before the mating begins one should care- 
fully go over his flock and assort the ewes. 
Ewe lambs must be taken out and none bred 
that are not past a year old. Old ewes that have 
lost their teeth and are evidently not quite able 
to go safely through the winter and nourish 
well their lambs, are better consigned to the 
fattening pen. At least there should be a 
mark put upon them that will indicate their 
condition, so that they may be given extra 
care and attention. Quite often with such 
ewes it is m.ost profitable to breed them and 
by careful feeding keep them as strong as you 
dare till lambing time, after this to give them 
a large allowance of grain, ground if need be, 
so as to push them with their lambs, and they 



74 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

will often make as good lambs as the other 
ewes and be themselves ready to follow their 
offspring to market a few weeks after the 
lambs have left them. A suitable mark for 
these culled ewes is to clip off the end of one 
ear. 

Yet another thing for which to search is a 
spoiled udder or a ewe without perfect teats. 
Quite often such ewes are found, and to have 
them drop lambs without ability to suckle 
them is to entail great disappointment and 
trouble on the shepherd. 

There is a temptation to breed the young, 
immature ewes, particularly if they are well 
grown, but it is wiser not to do this, as it leads 
to the steady decrease in size of your sheep, 
and by weakening the ewe's constitution be- 
cause of the heavy drain upon her, you make 
her the more liable to attacks of parasites, 
those foes of the sheep and shepherd that 
never may be forgotten with safety. 

PUTTING IN THE EAM. 

The ewe carries her lamb from 142 to 150 
days, or, rouglily, five months. It is well to 
so time the putting in of the ram as to bring 
the lambs at the season when they will best 
fit in with vour scheme of manasrement. Much 
depends here upon the breed under considera- 
tion, for it is natural for the Dorset and the 
Merino to drop their lambs very early, so that 
they may be mated with the ram in September, 
when the lambs will come early in February, 
or if in August they will come in January, or 



SELECTION AND MANAGEMENT. 



75 



in July to have them in December. With 
Shropshires it is unusual for lambs to appear 
so early as December or January, though the 
middle of September is an excellent time to 
mate them; with Southdowns the same time 
will serve, though they naturally lamb later, 




RAMBOUILLET KAM. 



and with Cotswolds and Lincolns it is unusual 
for lambs to be bom before Maxell or April. 
If the shepherd has good quarters for his flock 
he may as well try for some early lambs; they 
will serve to occupy his time in winter, and com- 
ing then when he has leisure, he will lose but 



76 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

a small proportion of them. Winter lambs well 
nourished in infancy make mnch stronger and 
better sheep than late lambs, as they go to 
grass so big and lusty as to defy many of the 
evils that attack later lambs. 

MANAGEMENT OF THE RAM. 

The ram during summer days should have 
the run of a small lot with access to shade, 
with abundant food, yet not too much, and 
with company of other rams or of a few weth- 
ers, or some ram lambs or even with a few 
ewes running with him. He should have care- 
ful attention that he remains in perfect health, 
especial care being taken not to put him in a 
piece of infected grass where he may develop 
parasites. Before the breeding season he 
should be entirely separated from the ewes, 
and if not in strong condition, given a regular 
feed of oats and bran or some similar feed 
twice a day, not enough to fatten him, but to 
put him in vigorous condition. 

It is wise not to ever turn him with the 
ewes, but better to bring them to him each 
morning early while it is yet cool, penning 
them in a small pen so that there is just room 
enough for him to move about readily among 
them, and where they can not easily escape 
you when you desire to catch some of them. 

After the ewes are brought up, let him come 
m with them, and he will soon single out one 
that may be in heat. Allow him to serve her 
once only and immediately put her out, mark- 
ing her at the same time so that you will know 



SELECTION AND MANAGEMENT. 77 

that she has been bred. It is wise to use a 
different color in marking each weelv, thus all 
the ewes that are bred the first week will be 
marked red, all the next week blue, the third 
week yellow, the fourth week black, the tifth 
week green and so on. This marking is done 
with a brush and a daub of paint, on the back 
of the head or on the shoulder is a good place. 

After the first ewe has been taken out, the 
ram will proceed quietly to search for anotheT. 
Unless he is a very vigorous ram, it is unwise 
to allow him to serve more than four during 
a moming, and if a large number seem to be 
in heat, it will be well to get them up again 
after sunset in the evening. The ram has an 
exceedingly vigorous reproductive system, and 
has power to impregnate more females than 
most animals, especially as his work is con- 
fined to a short period each year. 

The ewes that are seized and put out should 
be put by themselves and not returned to the 
flock for three days, else they may be still in 
heat and receive unnecessary attention from 
the male. One service will as surely impreg- 
nate as more and will beget strongerlambs. 

Managed in this way a ram will easily care 
for 40 or 50 ewes if he is vigorous and well 
cared for. He should be kept quiet all day, 
in a cool place, and well fed on stimulating 
food such as oats and bran with clover hay. 

One advantage from this way of managing 
ewes is that one will know those that do not 
take the ram at all and can put them out of 
the flock, and by giving them a little extra 



78 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

feed, they will soon fatten, when they may be 
sold. 

There is a practice not very common among 
shepherds of forcibly holding ewes that per- 
sistently reject the ram, and allowing him to 
seiTe them. They will not often conceive from 
this service, but it often causes them to come 
in heat naturally in from ten days to three 
weeks. Some early lamb breeders make con- 
siderable use of this practice. It can do the 
ewe no harm in case it is unsuccessful. 

CARE OF THE PEEGNANT EWE. 

Perhaps the gTeatest stumbling block in the 
way of the inexperienced shepherd is in the 
care of his ewe flock during pregnancy. Either 
he feeds them too well, or on unsuitable foods, 
or he deprives them of air and exercise, or he 
goes to the other extreme and lets them brave 
the stonns without enough food. Either con- 
dition will surely be fatal to his fortune, 
though of the two extremes the worse is that 
of too much food and no exercise. Such a 
course is surely fatal to his hopes of a large 
crop of strong lambs. 

If one would have success with these preg- 
nant ewes he should consider their condition 
in a state of nature. Then they I'oamed the 
hills, selecting the higher points as places to 
sleep; they sheltered beside rocks or under 
pines. They were not in large flocks and found 
sufficient food as they were not restrained by 
fences. They had abundant exercise and al- 
ways fresh air. Doubtless when their lambs 



Tf) 

trJ 
W 
o 

M 
I— I 

w 

H 

!/) 
O 




SELECTION AND MANAGEMENT. 8'' 

came they were very strong and vigorous, able 
soon to run beside their mothers. Under ranch 
conditions today hmibs are bom veiy strong, 
and it is rare to find one so weak as ito be un- 
able to suck without aid. 

The writer remembers vividly his first ex- 
perience with lambing ewes. The first win- 
ter he let them have the run of a pasture, with 
shelter, fed clover and com stover, and the re- 
sult was a good lamb crop. A few of these 
lambs were so remarkably promising, one sell- 
ing for $18 at weaning time, that he was 
encouraged to attempt to do much better the 
next year. Tliat winter proved to be rather 
cold and stormv, so he kept them rather close. 
Having learned the value of wheat bran as a 
bone and muscle builder, he fed these ewes 
about all the bran thev wanted, rmd they con- 
sumed a ;Qrreat deal, with clover hay. 

The lamb crop came early, and the lambs 
were stron^r. being the product of hand coup- 
ling with a vigorous sire. The difficulty was in 
the enormous size of mnnv of thorn, some be- 
insr so lars^e of bone that it was nearlv impos- 
sible for them to be delivered at all. One 
S!hropshiro weio-hed 17 pounds at birth! Tfs 
mother died soon after its deliverv. nnd the 
lamb itself was lost throuo-h unskillful feed- 
in^. The net result was a small crop of mag-- 
nificent Inmbs secured at a cost of great labor 

and pains. ' 

The 7iAYf venr nn old fnVnd nnd shenherd 
.^A.i-Qo]orl hip-, fo nr7or>t n rndipnllv difPeroTif 
policy. He was to allow the flock to mn in the 



S2 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

pasture, slieltering in open sheds and under 
the trees, and subsisting" solely on coarse for- 
age such as corn stover and oat straw. Hav- 
ing in the barns a great number of lambs that 
were being fed for fattening, there was good 
excuse for neglecting the ewes. 

Unfortunately ewes in winter time because 
of their long fleeces, appear to be in good con- 
dition when they are not, and the writer had 
no idea how very thin in flesh they were be- 
coming until lambs started to drop in April. 
Then his troubles began. The lambs came 
strong enough, as a rule, nor were they too 
large to be delivered easily, but the ewes hav- 
ing been poorly nourished, had no milk for 
them, and would not own them at all. The 
truth is tbat there is a direct connection be- 
tween the milk glands of an animal and the 
part of the brain where lies love of offspring, 
and in the sheep at least it is rare to find 
mother love where there is no milk to go along 
with it. 

The result was that the writer was put to 
his wits ' end to make the ewes own their lambs 
and to try by good feeding to bring them to 
their milk flow. Many lambs were lost, and 
tlie whole result was disheartening. 

The simple truth is that pregnant ewes must 
have so far as possible natural conditions. 
They must have enough food, and that of a 
suitable nature properly tO' nourish the grow- 
ing foetus without stimulating too much the 
development of bone. They must come to 
lambing in good heart, what the farmer would 



SET^ECTION AND MANAGEMENT. 



83 



call ^^fat/' but not according to the butcher's 
standard. They must have abundant oppor- 
tunity to exercise and to get fresh air. Thus 
treated tlieir lambs should come as strong as 
wild things and give little trouble. It is the 
natural thing for a lamb to be born strong, 
to live at birth, since all its ancestors have 




BLACK-FACED RAMS. 



done the like since lambs were born into the 
world. 

There is danger in well bred ewes highly fed 
upon such foods as wheat bran and clover or 
alfalfa hay that the lambs may have excessive 
bony development, and it is not now the prac- 
tice of the writer to feed much bran before 
weaning, but to give instead bright, sweet com 
stover and alfalfa hay. Too much alfalfa hay 
even will sometimes make the lambs rather 
large at birth. If the coarse forage is not 
abundant and of excellent quality^ the shep- 



84 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

herd should feed a small daily allowance of 
grain. A mixture of corn and oats may be used, 
which should be fed in wide flat-bottomed 
troughs, so that the ewes can not rapidly 
swallow it as they will when fed in V-shaped 
troughs. 

A run tO' a blue-grass pasture is an excellent 
thing, and if the grass is permitted to grow up 
in the fall and lie uneaten, no small part of 
the sustenance of the flock will come from that. 
A sheltering bit of ¥70odland, in which they 
may wander, affords shelter and amusement, 
and well repays the ground on which it stands. 

While the flock should be out of doors every 
fine winter's day, yet the shepherd should have 
his charges in mind and see that each ewe 
comes to the barn before storms break, and al- 
ways the flock should be shut in at night. 



CHAPTER IV. 



OARE OF THE EWE AND YOUNG LAMB. 

THE EWE BAKN. 

A breeding ewe requires about 12 square 
feet of floor surface. There should be provided 
in the ewe bam movable feed racks, long and 
narrow, of such type that they will form parti- 
tions wherever needed. These racks are best 
made 24 inches wide, 36 inches high, with a 
tight bottom about 6 inches up from the 
ground. The sides about this bottom may be 
of 6 inch boards, forming a shalloAv feed box. 
On this foundation will be nailed, vertically, 
slats % inch thick and 30 inches long. These 
slats may be placed 7 inches apart, so that the 
sheep can thrust their heads clear into the 
rack to feed. There will then be much less 
loss of feed than if the slats are placed close 
together, for in that case the ewes pull all the 
hay through the cracks and drop most of it 
under their feet. There will be a little dust 
get into the wool of the necks in feeding in 
such a rack, but it is a trifling damage com- 
pared with the loss of forage in any ''feed- 
saving'' rack. 

After using many forms of racks, the writer 

(85 



86 



SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 



now uses these in preference to any others, 
for in them may be fed grain, bran, silage or 
any sort of hay. 

The ewe barn must have provision for most 
ample ventilation. That is best accomplished 
by having on two sides clear across the bam 
a system of doors so arranged that they are 




SOUTHDOWN EWES. 

divided in halves horizontally, the lower part 
of the door swinging as an ordinary gate 
swings, the upper half hinged at its upper 
edge and lifting up to a horizontal position, 
upheld by wooden props or pendant chains. 

By means of these upper doors the ventila- 
tion may be made so thorough that the air 
will be practically as good within the barn as 



CARE OF THE EWE AND YOUNG LAMB. 87 

outside, or in colder weather one side may be 
completely closed and the other, to leeward, 
opened, or in very cold weather all may be 
closed tight. 

It will be disastrous to confine the sheep in 
a poorly ventilated building. Loss of thrift, 
colds and catarrh will surely result. 

In England sheep are almost never confined 
to buildings at all. Their mild winters make 
outdoor feeding practicable with them, whereas 
it is not so with us. We must feed in racks 
during the time that they are hurdling off 
turnips in winter and much of the loss of thrift 
and character of English sheep bred here is 
owing to unskillful wintering in i>oorly ven- 
tilated bams. During tlie winter season the 
shepherd has opportunity to get well acquaint- 
ed with his flock. lie should learn to know 
each ewe by her countenance; and they should 
learn to know him and to know so little of 
evil of him that he can approach any one and 
catch her without difficulty and without fright- 
ening her. A shepherd's crook that will catch 
])y the hind leg is useful in the sheep fold, 
though I prefer for ordinary use the old-fash- 
ioned crook that catches by the neck. Any 
l)lacksmith can make a crook in a few mo- 
ments of an old horse-rake tooth, set in a 
long wooden handle. It should be so shaped 
that it will with a little pressure slip over 
the neck of the ewe, widening at the opening 
considerably to make it easy of use, and the 
end should be turned over in a little coil so 
that it can not accidentally wound the skin. 



88 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

Before the lambs are due it is well to turn 
each ewe up on lier rump, using her gently, 
and with shears clip the wool away from the 
udder; particularly the little locks that might 
be seized by the lamb when searching for 
the teat. 

Before the lambing season the shepherd 
should provide himself with some little panels, 
made of light wood, like doors, each panel 36'' 
high and 48'' long. Two of these panels should 
be hinged together at the ends so that they 
may be folded together and laid away or 
opened in the shape of the letter L. The 
use of these is to make little pens in which 
to place ewes about to lamb, or newly lambed, 
to prevent their lam])s straying away and get- 
ting mixed through the flock. Thus many 
lambs will be saved that otlierwise would be 
lost and much of the usual vexatious work of 
the shepherd avoided. To use these panels, 
one is opened at right angles in the corner 
of the lambing room, and by aid of hooks 
fastened at the free ends to the wall, thus mak- 
ing a pen 4'x4'. As it is tiglit, the lamb can 
not creep out, and the ewe being unable to see 
out is made more tranquil. When there is need 
of another such x>en it is set up alongside 
the first one and thus on until a row has been 
erected across the end of the building. If 
there be need, another i*ow can join these. 

The observant shepherd can usually fore- 
tell the advent of a land), for the ewe shows 
by her appearance and her actions that she 
is expecting it. Because of her instinct, in- 



CARE OF THE EWE AND YOUNG LAMB. 89 

deed it is not unusual to see a ewe hunting 
anxiously about for her lamb before it has 
been born at all! It is wise to place her by 
herself before this event occurs, if it con- 
veniently can be done. 

CAKE AT LAMBING TIME. 

There should be small difficulty in the ewe 
delivering- her lamb if she has been rightly 
fed and treated. There will probably be no 
occasion for interference of the shepherd, yet 
he should be watchful, and when she has been 
in distress for some time without effect he 
should not hesitate to go to her assistance. 
The difficulty may be one of wrong presenta- 
tion. Naturally the lamb comes with front 
feet first, and nose just between them. Even 
when the presentation is right the shepherd 
may be of great help sometimes, if the lamb 
is of large size, by gently manipulating the 
parts, pulling a little at the lamb and push- 
ing the external parts of the ewe back until 
the head is free. Then the nose may be wiped 
so that the lamb can breathe, and in a moment, 
after the ewe has again begun her labor, you 
may gently draw the lamb outward until the 
shoulders are delivered— the hardest part. I 
usually leave her then, for the hips and hind 
legs come away readily, and the ewe generally 
gets up at once and seeks her lamb and pro- 
ceeds to lick it and caress it with her tongue. 
It should soon try to stand and in about 15 
minutes will try to suck. If it finds the teat 
without aid you may call it half raised. 



90 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

Usually it is well to help the lamb to its 
first meal, especially if the ewe is yomig, and 
it is her first born. The easiest way to do this 
is to gently set her on her rump, as though you 
were going to shear her, kneeling down behind 
her and with her shoulders resting against you. 
First start the milk from her teats, then tak- 
ing the lamb with the right hand (the left 
ami being under the ewe to support her), lay 
it down on its side and opening its mouth in- 
sert the teat, when it will usually begin to 
suck immediately. Let it get a pretty fair belly- 
ful and its chances are bright for coming on 
in good, strong fashion. 

The shepherd should observe whether it aft- 
erward goes to sucking on its own account, and 
if it does there need not be many slips between 
that lamb and a ten dollar bill, if it is born 
right! 

Supposing there is a wrong presentation. 
The shepherd is fortunate if he has a small 
hand, for it is his duty to help put things 
right. We can not here give details of how 
this is to be done, but knowing the natural 
presentation the sliepherd should be able to 
study it out for himself. He must carefully 
anoint his hand with lard or vaseline and avoid 
so far as possible any rough treatment or in- 
jury to the delicate parts. The writer has 
taken several lambs away with hind feet first 
without difficult)', but should the head be turned 
back it must be straightened before delivery 
is possible. 

There will be much more difficulty with 



CAKE OF THE EWE AND YOUNG LAMB. 93 

young ewes tlian with older ones, so that the 
inexperienced shepherd is wise if he begins 
with ewes most of which have lambed once 
or twice before they came to his care. 

In very cold weather the lambing bam should 
be made as comfortable as possible, without de- 
priving it altogether of fresh air, and even 
then when twin lambs are bom there may be 
need of assistance or one of them may perish 
before it is made dry and given milk to sup- 
ply inward heat. It is an excellent plan to 
have at hand a tub or half barrel, a salt barrel 
sawed in two serves well; and in this a jug 
of hot water. The lamb may be laid in this 
tub and covered with a blanket until its mother 
can give it her attention. Or a chilled lamb, 
if only slightly chilled, may be warmed in this 
manner. An excellent plan and simpler if the 
shepherd is at hand when the first of twins is 
bom is to lay it in a tub on two or three 
inches of wheat bran and cover it all but the 
nose with more bran. It will keep as warm as 
toast there and the bran will help absorb 
moisture, and when it is given to the ewe she 
will lick off the adhering bran without injury 
to herself. 

Supposing that through some accident the 
new-born lamb has gotten thoroughly chilled; 
the best manner of warming it is by immersion 
in water as hot as one can bear his hand in. 
This will soon become cooled and more hot 
water should be added, taking care of course 
not to scald the lamb. "When warm and re- 
vived it should be wiped dry and taken to its 



94 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

mother and held till it is supplied with her 
milk. The writer has revived in this manner 
lambs seemingly dead. It is not wise to give 
it cow's milk if it can be avoided, and if it 
IS necessary the cow's milk should be diluted 
with some quite warm water. Some shepherds 
give a drop or two of v/hiskey to a chilled 
lamb and it may sometimes prove beneficial. 

The next day after the lamb is born the ewe 
should be milked clean. The shepherd should 
then observe whether the lamb is taking her 
milk all right, and if there is much surplus 
he should milk it out every day clean until 
such time as the lamb can use it. This is es- 
pecially necessary with Dorset ewes, and some 
other breeds occasionally need attention. It 
is not well for the lamb to take in the milk 
first secreted after being retained stagnant in 
the dam's udder for an undue length of time. 
Such ewes while troublesome make the finest 
and most profitable lambs in the end. 

Occasionally a young ewe will not own her 
lamb or an older ewe may neglect or disown 
hers. Generally, if the lamb is put with her 
in a small pen and helped to get his rations 
for a few times she will own it. If she per- 
sists in her perversity she may have her head 
fastened into a pair of small stanchions so 
that she can eat but not get away from the 
lamb nor attack it, nor readily prevent its 
sucking. These stanchions may be made of 
two pieces of 1x4 pine driven into the earthen 
floor, and the tops held together by a short 
board nailed on. There is no cruelty about 



CARE OF THE EWE AND YOUNG LAMB. 95 

this practice „ and it is always effective when 
persisted in for a few days. 

Occasionally there will be a ewe wliose lamb 
will die and leave her with an udder filled 
with milk. This gives opportunity to change 
to her some twin lamb whose mother would 
]>e better for the relief. To accomplish this 
transference the best plan is to remove the 
skin of the dead lamb soon after its death 
and slip it over the living lamb. It may be 
pulled off as a stocking is removed and rubbed 
with a little salt to dry it and at once slipped 
on to the twin lamb with the feet thrust 
through the holes where the former lamb's 
legs were. Tntrodaced now to the mother of 
the dead lamb, confined with her in a small 
pen, it is not often that she will refuse to 
own it at once. Ewes know their lambs en- 
tirely by scent, and thus the odor of the skin 
tells' her that it is truly her own lamb that is 
with her. This skin may be taken off after 
a few days. 

It is not good shepherding to permit a ewe 
to be without a lamb sucking her when there 
are Iambs enough to go around, and usually 
there will be so many twins among ewes of 
the mutton breeds that there are enough lambs 
for all and perhaps 25 to the hundred over. 

Occasionally a ewe will be found of so per- 
verse a disposition or so undeveloped in udder 
or malformed that she will not raise a lamb 
at all. The cure for her is to cut off half of 
one ear, which is the ''brand of Cain,'' and 
indicates that she is to go to the butcher as 
soon as fat. 



96 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

There is a man in the West ¥:ho sells for 
one dollar a receipt for making ewes own 
lambs, either their own or some others. Hav- 
ing paid my dollar I can testify tliat there is 
merit in his plan, which is to carefully wash 
the lamb, especially about the rump and tail 
and on top of the head, removing thus all 
trace of scent so far as possible. Next you 
are to catch the ewe and milk upon the head 
and rump of the lamb from her udder, rubbing 
it well over him, and lastly to put a handful 
of milk on her own nose and in her mouth. 
Tben hold the lamb to her side and when it 
is sucking permit her to smell of it. Often 
this will succeed, but if she has lambed some 
days previously the recourse to stanchions will 
be surer and less troublesome. 

FEEDING OF THE EWE AFTER LAMBING. 

If the ewe has been well nourished during 
her pregnancy she comes in with her lamb 
strong and has a well filled udder. At once 
when the lamb is born she must be turned 
away from the flock, and if the shepherd will 
give her the trifle of care that she really needs 
then he will keep her by herself, or in a pen 
with other ewes in her condition for a few 
days. During this time she should be some- 
what sparingly fed with grain, or it may even 
be best to give her none at all, depending upon 
her condition. It is unwise to early force her 
to a milk flow in excess of what the lamb can 
consume. In a few days, however, she will 
need good food in generous amounts, for the 



CARE OF THE EWE AND YOUNG LAMB. 



97 



lamb will draw heavily upon her system for 
nourishment. She can not even by eating alone 
keep np her milk flow if she is a large milker, 
but will decline somewhat in condition, even 
when weJl fed, showing that her flesh also 
turns to milk. 

Bear always in mind two facts. Sheep are 
ruminating animals, accustomed by nature to 




A BUNCH OP NEBRASKA LEICESTERS. 

eating bulky foods of moderate nutritive proi> 
erties, and not accustomed to eating grain. 
Next; sheep have delicate digestions, easily 
disturbed by improper feeding, excessive feed- 
ing or sudden changes in the amount of feed 
given. Therefore make no sudden changes 
and least of all make at once a large addition 
of grain to her daily ration. In England ewes 



98 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

seldom taste grain at all, but eat instead grass, 
hay and roots, mainly swede turnips. Here, 
wliere roots are not so easily grown and fed 
(excepting in Canada and northern America), 
more reliance is put upon grain, and with care 
in feeding it may take the place very well. 

A sensible treatment of the ewe that lambs 
in winter is to keep her mostly on clover or 
alfalfa hay until after her lamb comes. There 
will be no need to limit the amount of hay that 
she consumes after lambing and then when 
her lamb takes all her milk and wishes more, 
begin feeding her a little wheat bran. For a 
week bran will suffice, gradually increasing 
the amount fed, then there may be added to 
it a little chopped com or barley and a little 
later some oilmeal. A pound a day of this 
mixture will keep her in good milk flow and 
must be gradually led up to for about ten 
days. 

The right proportions of this mixture are 
about 100 lbs. of wheat bran, 100 lbs. of 
chopped corn and 20 lbs. of oilmeal. This 
with clover or alfalfa hay will push her to 
a very heavy milk flow. If she is a large ewe 
she may consume more than a pound to ad- 
vantage, as much as two pounds being con- 
sumed by some large Dorset ew^es belonging to 
the writer. 

If this feed is so gradually introduced to 
the ewe that her digestion is not disturbed 
nor her milk flow stimulated too much at first, 
there is small danger of overfeeding her, sup- 
posing that the lamb is to be pushed for early 



CARE OF THE EWE AND YOUNG LAMB. 99 

market. Her unsellisli nature turns the feed 
quickly into milk and little of it goes to nour- 
ish her own body. 

It is much easier, however, to keep her in 
large milk flow if we provide succulent food at 
this time. Corn silage is easily provided and 
is as good for the ewe as for the cow. It 
should be made from well matured corn so as 
to develop its sugar and prevent an excess of 
acid from forming. Some complaint has been 
made of the effect of corn silage upon sheep, 
but usually the trouble has been that the feed- 
ers have tried to make it the main part of the 
ration. It should always be fed in connection 
with good sound dry hay and some grain. As 
corn silage from well matured corn has in it 
a good deal of grain when it is fed the rest of 
the ration should be of wheat bran, oilmeal 
and clover or alfalfa hay. 

In the northern part of the United States, 
along the great lakes, in Michigan, Wiscon- 
sin and northern Minnesota beside northern 
New York and New England and in all of 
Canada (besides Oregon, Washington and 
British Columbia) roots form a very impor- 
tant part of the ewe's ration. Eoots have, in- 
deed, almost created the breeds of English 
mutton sheep. They are safer to feed than 
silage and better. In England it is customary 
to grow turnips, mostly swedes, which are sel- 
dom pulled but are consumed on the ground 
on which they grow, being enclosed by hurdles 
and eaten off a block at a time. In very wet 
or bad weather some are pulled and carried 



100 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

to the sheep, being fed on grass or in open 
sheds. 

The use of roots is productive of great good 
to the ewe flock. They are succulent and start 
a natural milk flow, whereas grain naturally 
goes more to producing flesh and fat. There 
is no danger of the ewes consuming too many 
roots. They push her easily and naturally to 
a strong flow of milk that has very healthful 
properties. Ewes highly fed on grain often 
give milk that is injurious to their lambs. Of 
this there is no danger when roots are substi- 
tuted in large part for the grain. 

The shepherd who can readily grow roots 
has a distinct advantage over the one who re- 
lies upon dry hay and grain for wintering his 
ewe flock. Most of the best developed sheep, 
the ones seen at our fall shows, come from root- 
growing regions. Unfortunately roots are not 
very easily grown in the corn-belt and below, 
though mangels will thrive well to the south- 
ward. 

Swede turnips form the bulk of the roots 
grown for sheep. They should be sown on 
productive soil, well prepared. The time of 
sowing varies with climates but usually early 
in July the seed should go in the ground. It 
is well to have the land ridged nicely and to 
sow the seed on the top of the ridge, which 
makes much easier hoeing and thinning or 
^ ^ singling. ' ' In dry climates of course ridging 
must be attempted with caution not to get 
them too sharp and tall. Mangels are more 
productive than swedes but are not so rich 



CARE OF THE EWE AND YOUNG LAMB. 101 

and are unsafe to feed to rams. Carrots are 
more trouble to grow than either but are the 
best when grown. 

Many distressing troubles come from sudden 
increase in the grain ration of the ewe after 
lambing. It is a very inducing cause of gar- 
get, or it may stop the milk flow altogether, or 
it may cause founder, stiffness of joints and 
great lameness. 

TKOUBLES OF YOUNG LAMBHOOD. 

The lamb has his trials and dangers too. 
Supposing that he gets accidentally shut 
away from his mother for some hours, until 
he is very empty and she very full of milk, 
if then he gets sudden access to her he will 
usually die from the overburden of milk 
taken in. A^Hien the shepherd discovers that 
ewe and lamb have been separated for several 
hours he should catch the ewe and milk her 
nearly clean before allowing them to come to- 
gether, i 

Then there is conta2:ious sore eyes. This is 
caused by a germ. There are probably several 
kinds of germs that do the mischief, and the 
result is an inflammation and weeping of the 
eve with consenuent distress and lack of thrift. 
The cure is fortunately easy. Taking some 
one of the coal tar dins, and diluting with water 
nearly as much as for killing scab, the head 
should be^ well wet and care taken that some 
of the fluid actually reaches the eve. It may 
be painful for a moment but it works a SDeedy 
cure. The writer has repeatedly cured this 



102 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

trouble by dropping a tiny drop of the pure 
dip, undiluted, into the open eye of the lamb. 
Tears start vigorously and dissolve it while 
the eyelid winking vigorously carries it to 
every part. The cheeks should be saturated 
also with dip, properly diluted. 

SORE MOUTHS AND TEATS. 

Quite often a contagious form of sore mouth 
affects young lambs and the sores are seen also 
upon the teats and udders of the ewes. These 
sores form scabs along the edges of the lips 
and pustules upon the teats. Often they be- 
come so troublesome as to cause the death of 
the lamb, more usually simply interfering with 
its thrift so much as to sometimes make it 
profitless. The writer has found this disease, 
which sheep writers sometimes spend so much 
time in describing and discussing, of the easi- 
est possible control. Assuming that it is of 
germ origin, to rub off the scabs and wash the 
lips witli strong solutions of coal tar dips and 
to treat the udders in the same manner has 
with the author in every case served to effect 
a radical cure. Quite often this disease breaks 
out upon the mouths of Western range lambs 
upon their arrival at an Eastern farm for 
feeding. The treatment is to rub off the scabs 
and api)ly the undiluted dip to the fresh sur- 
face. Tn recommending these coal tar prod- 
ucts the writer wishes to be understood as 
meaning such preparations as are usuallv sold 
as ^'Zenoleum,'' ^ ^ Naptholeum, " ^^^Milk' Oil," 
etc. They ai^e much alike, really impure coal 



CARE OF THE *EWE AND YOUNG LAMB. 103 

tar creosote, and most effectual destroyers of 
germ life and wlien used with discretion are 
among the best friends of the shepherd. 

FEEDING THE LAMBS. 

Lambs early develop a hunger for solid food 
and begin nibbling at hay and sampling 
ground feed or whatever is at hand. At the 




'MARY HAD FIVE LITTLE LAMBS." 

age of ten days they will begin seriously to 
eat ground feed. Advantage of this should be 
taken and the lamb encouraged to eat as early 
and as much as possible. During the early 



104 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

life of an animal nutrition is more perfect than 
later and the cost of producing growth is much 
less. Digestion is more perfect, the young 
animal can consume more in proportion to its 
weight and it is more perfectly assimilated. 
A pound of flesh on the haby lamb can there- 
fore be made at a much less cost than after he 
is older. Seeing that the young mutton com- 
mands by far the higher price it is plain that 
the earlier weight is put on the better so far 
as profit is concerned. 

The practice in England is to have in the 
hurdles in which the flock is usually confined, 
^'creeps" or openings wide enough to let the 
lambs slip through while restraining the ewes. 
These creeps usually have small rollers at the 
sides so that the lambs as they grow and nearly 
fill the opening may squeeze through without 
injury to themselves or loosening of their wool. 
Thus the lambs **run forward" to an enclosure 
of their own where they find fresh grazing of 
turnips or vetch or clover or grass, according 
to the situation and season, and in these small 
enclosures are kept troughs replenished regu- 
larly twice a day with some grain mixture, 
English feeders use great amounts of ^^cake," 
which is either of linseed or cottonseed. This 
cake is made at American oil mills when by 
pressure oil is extracted from the crushed 
seed. American feeders usually buy '* oil- 
meal," or ground cake, whereas our British 
cousins prefer to buy the actual cakes and 
break them at the barn into bits as larse per- 
haps as hickory nuts, or somewhat smaller for 



CARE OF THE EWE AND YOUNG LAMB. 105 

young lambs. English lambs come from the 
iiurclles at the age of three or fonr months 
weighing 80 to 100 lbs. They will do as well 
in America, under right management, as the 
writer has frequently demonstrated in his own 
practice. The fact is that one must keep the 
ewes in any case and m.ust feed them, so that 
there is a certain fixed expense connected with 
rearing the lambs. This expense produces a cer- 
tain amount of growth ; now by the addition of 
supplementary foods this growth may be 
greatly increased at very slight expense. The 
amount of extra food consumed by the young 
lamb to make an extra pound of growth will 
not cost more than one or two cents. To make 
a pound of growth on him after he has left his 
mother will cost from 31/3 to 5 cents. Then, 
too, the early growth is what brings the largest 
price. And again the lamb that matures very 
early and gets away to market escapes a hun- 
dred ills that lie in wait for the lamb that re- 
mains on the farm for nearly a year, so, alto- 
gether, the arguments are all for pushing the 
farm-bom lambs as rapidly as possible by 
extra allowance of feed. 

Of course lambs that are pure-bred and in- 
tended to stay on the farm to maturity must 
be fed a different ration from those that are 
merely to get fat quick and end a short but 
hapny and victorious life at the market. Stock 
lambs need abundant food but no forcing. 
Their ration aside from their mothers' milk 
should be of oats and bran, with a trifle of oil- 
meal, clover and alfalfa hay, and in their 



106 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

ground feed there may be added a little fine 
ground bonemeal, the steamed bone or some 
odorless product to be chosen of coarse. There 
is small danger of overfeeding these stock 
lambs in their infancy; they will the earlier go 
afield and learn there to seek their subsistence 
in the form, of grass and herbage. Corn should 
not be fed to them, neither to the ewe lambs 
nor the ram lambs, for corn mainly makes fat 
and fat impedes vital functions rather than 
helps. The ram lambs developed on corn are 
slow, sluggish, early losing their usefulness ; 
the ewes developed on corn are uncertain 
breeders and often poor milkers. To develop 
bone and muscle and stamina in these stock 
lambs should be the aim and this is accom- 
plished by feeding foods rich in bone and 
muscle-making materials, of which wheat bran 
is easily among the first and oats come next. 
They should have abundant chance of exercise 
too, which may be denied somewhat to the 
lambs that are to go fat to an early market. 
Then there should be constant w^atchfulness to 
avoid infection from i^arasites and if tliis is 
done the shejiherd will have abundant reason 
to congratulate himself upon the splendid 
growth of his stock lambs. 

FEEDING FOE THE MAKKET. 

Supposing now the lamb crop is mostly to 
go fat to market as soon as ripe. We will 
assume that they have been born in winter, 
which is the proper season for all lambs to be 
born on farms, unless one can get them in the 



D 
O 
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W 
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^^ 

> 

w 
o 

o 




CARE OF THE EWE AND YOUNG LAMB. 109 

fall, and that they Have comfortable quarters 
and their mothers have been so well fed that 
they have an abundance of milk for them. 
Next there must be provided a small room or 
pen in which the lambs can go and the ewes 
can not. This place must be of veiy conven- 
ient access, so that it is really easier for the 
lamb to go in than to remain outside. This is 
because lambs have fleeting memories and are 
largely the creatures of opportunity. They 
will consume much more feed when it is right 
at their mouths than if they have to go even 
a few rods to seek it. This place, which we 
call a ''creep," must be in a light part of the 
barn and if the sun can shine in all the better, 
for lambs are attracted by sunlight and greatly 
benefited by it. In truth some of the most 
successful lamb growers have glass-roofed 
sheds for their use in winter and achieve 
thereby remarkable results. ^ ^ 

This creep need not be very large. If it is 
12 feet square it will accommodate 50 lambs 
very nicely, as they will not all be in it at one 
time. It should be separated from the ewes' 
part of the barn by a fence of vertical slats, 
spaced about 7 inches apart, the slats with 
rounded edges. This will permit the lambs to 
pass in and restrain the ewes. After a time 
the lambs will need some wider openings and 
then if small rollers are put up to permit them 
to squeeze between all the better. 

In the creep there must be some flat-bot- 
tomed troughs in which to feed grain and a 
hay rack for alfalfa hay, or clover if it is the 



110 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

best at hand. The troughs must be low to 
permit young lambs readily tO' reach them. 
As lambs delight to get into troughs with their 
feet they must be covered. To accomplish 
this let the end of the trough be a solid board 
12 inches wide and extending up 12 inches 
above the sides of the trough, pointed at the 
end like the gable of a house roof and put on 
this two boards like an inverted V. This 
makes a steep roof to the trough and effec- 
tually prevents the lambs getting their feet 
into it. 

This cover is readily lifted off when grain 
is put in. Attention to such small details as 
keeping troughs clean is essential to success in 
feeding lambs. Their sense of smell is acute and 
they discriminate sharply against anything but 
clean, fresh food. 

The first feed to put into the trough may be 
wheat bran. Scatter a trifle in the bottom and 
sprinkle it with brown sugar. If the lambs 
do not find it readily, take one up gently, not 
to frighten him, and carrying him to the 
trough put a little of the sweetened bran in 
his mouth. He will get the taste and in many 
cases you can carefully put him on his feet 
with his head in the trough, leaving him there. 
Once he gets a taste he will return and bring 
others with him. 

It is essential that the bran used be fresh. 
Cracked corn will be added to the bran ; it also 
must be fresh and made of good, sound corn. 
It need not be cracked very fine. Better mix 
in a box or bin about 50 lbs. of cracked corn, 



CARE OF THE EWE AND YOUNG LAMB. Ill 

50 lbs. of wheat bran and 10 lbs. of oilmeal. 
coarse ground. If oats are available they may 
be added to this ration, ground at first, without 
changing the proportions of other things, for 
oats themselves form nearly a balanced ration. 

Feed this twice or three times a day, placing 
in the troughs about what will be consumed 
and when next feeding time comes sweep out 
and give to the ewes what may be left so as to 
always have fresh feed before the lambs. 
Never wait for them to lick out the last par- 
ticle before offering them fresh feed. 

You will soon be astonished at the amount 
the little fellows will consume and at the 
transformation in their appearance. The 
plump roundness of the baby forms is very 
beautiful and to w^atch them grow is a satis- 
faction and joy every day. 

Of course there are other things that may be 
fed. Wheat middlings may make a small part 
of the ration; it is too floury for best results, 
as the lambs do not like it so well. Eye will 
serve a useful purpose, though it seems less 
palatable than oats or barley. Soy beans may 
replace the oilmeal and are better. Soys are 
readily grown upon any farm and should be 
regularly sown where lambs are grown. 

Early varieties of soy beans should be 
grown in the Northern states, threshed when 
ripe and the seeds kept for the lambs. The 
bean straw if kept dry has in it a good deal of 
nourishment also which the ewes will seek out 
and the coarser parts will serve as an excellent 
bedding. 



112 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

There is hardly any other food that will 
push forward lambs like soys. They have 
abundant protein and a good deal of bone ma- 
terial also. As compared with ordinary field 
peas they have 29 to 40 per cent of protein, 
while field peas have 16 per cent and cowpeas 
18 per cent. Field peas are best adapted to 
New England, Canada and Michigan, with 
some regions of high altitude in the Rocky 
Mountains; soy beans to all the corn-belt. 
As the oilmeals are steadily increasing in 
price with possibilities of their frequent adul- 
teration the shepherd can not aif ord to over- 
look sources of home-grown protein. 

In the Southern states the hairy vetch is a 
source of home-grown protein not to be over- 
looked. Further reference to this will be made 
when we take up the subject of field crops for 
sheep. 

The lamb will drink a good deal of pure 
water, even while sucking his mother. It 
should be readily available and always clean 
enough for human consumption. 

After the lambs are well started on feed the 
ewe lambs if they are designed to be kept upon 
the farm, and such ram lambs as may be worth 
keeping, should be separated from the others 
and fed differently. They may have all the 
oats and bran they wish and some soy beans 
but are the better for having very little com. 
It is best if they have the run with their 
mothers of a field and learn early to seek part 
of their food outside, whereas the ones des- 
tined for market will grow as well and fatten 



CARE OF THE EWE AND YOUNG LAMB. 118 



range 



somewhat re- 



quicker to have their 
stricted. 

The shepherd should keep close watch on the 
ewes, for there will come a time when they are 
no longer milking freely and then they will 
put their food on their backs. Rather than 
fatten them to their harm, unless they are to 




AN ENGLISH "CREEP..' 

go to market, the grain should be gradually 
cut down and it will be found that the lambs 
at this time will take more each day. 

After the fattening lambs are a few weeks 
old they love to shell off corn from the ear 
and crack it with their own teeth. They should 
have opportunity to do this. 



114 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

In fact, when they are six weeks old it is 
hardly worth while to shell or grind any more 
corn for them at all. They i)refer it fresh 
shelled hy their own teeth. It is folly to 
spend effort in doing things that the lambs de- 
light in doing for themselves. 

DEESSING LAMBS FOR FANCY WINTER MARKET. 

When the lambs reach a weight of 50 to 60 
lbs. or even less if they are very fat the fancy 
New York market will pay for them from $3 
to $12 each if sent there by express nicely 
dressed and cooled. The prices depend upon 
how fat they are and what the season is. Big 
lambs, only moderately fat, sell much cheaper 
than small lambs that are very fat. 

For this trade the lambs are dressed in a 
special manner as the market requires. Mr. 
H. P. Miller, a successful '^hot house" lamb 
grower, gives this as his method: ^'It is very 
important to have them thoroughly bled out. 
To secure this we have found it advantageous 
to hang the lamb by the hind feet in killing. 
Suspend a small singletree about six feet from 
the ground. Loop a small rope or strong 
twine about each hind leg and attach to the 
hooks of the singletree. With a sharp pointed 
knife sever the artery and vein in the neck 
close to the head. Be sure to sever the artery. 
Bright red blood is the assurance. The venous 
blood is dark. Severing the head with one 
blow of a sharp broad axe would cause no 
suffering and insure thorough bleeding. I 
remove the head with a knife as soon as the 



CAKE OF THE EWE AND YOUNG T.AMB. 115 

lamb ceases struggiing. Clip the wool from 
the brisket and along a strip four or five 
inches wide upwards to the udder or scrotum, 
also from between the hind legs as in tagging 
sheep. Now open the lamb from the tail to 
the brisket. 81it the skin up the inside of the 
hind quarters about four inches and loosen it 
from the underlying muscles for two inches on 
either side of the openings for the attachment 
of caul fat. This should be removed from the 
stomachs before they are detached, and in 




READY FOR MARKET. 



very cold weather placed in warm water until 
ready to be used. Next remove the stomach 
and intestines. In the early i)art of the season 
the liver, heart and lungs may be left in place 
but when the weather gets warm they must 
be removed. Carefully spread the caul fat 
oyer all the ex])osed flesh. Good large tooth- 
picks will hold it in place. Make small slits in 
it over the kidneys and pull them through. 
This part of the work requires care and skill 
to make the carcass look attractive. 

''Be sure that all is clean and pretty. Hang 
in a cool place for 12 to 24 hours. The car- 



116 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

casses should not actually freeze but come 
close to it. Sew a yard of clean muslin about 
each lamb so as to cover all exposed surface. 
Then line a small crate with strong paper and 
place three lambs in it, tacking burlap over the 
top. Crate them just before shipping. Ice 
may be put between the lambs but not in them. 
Prepare for market as fast as ready, three or 
six at a time. Aim to slaughter regularly each 
week, if you have lambs in condition, and keep 
your commission firm informed as to how 
many you will send." 

It is worth noting that for a period of years 
prices for these fancy fat winter lambs have 
steadily advanced and the supply though in- 
creasing has not been equal to the demand. 
There is, however, a wide variation in prices 
obtained and if one finds his lambs selling at 
a low price he had better investigate to see 
what is wrong. It is better to keep the lambs 
to sell alive in spring than dress them and pay 
express charges and commissions for $3 to 
$4 each in winter. During January and Feb- 
ruary, however, good lambs, such as any careful 
mam can as easily make as any other sort, sell 
for from $8 to $12 each in New York with small 
prospect for oversupply soon. 

TKEATMENT OF THE LATE-BORN LAMBS. 

Naturally the larger part of the lambs will 
be born too late for the fancy trade. Nor 
would there be demand for all of them in the 
form of ^' fancy hot house lambs." There is, 
however, abundant profit in fattening them to 




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fa 

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CARE OF THE EWE AND YOUNG LAMB. 119 

be sold afoot in April, May, June or July. 
Usually the highest prices are obtained in 
June. At that time the supply of fat lambs 
born on the ranges the previous summer and 
winter-fed is about exhausted and the supx)ly 
of fat native winter or spring born lambs has 
never yet been adequate. 

To develop lambs for this live trade they 
should be fed just as advised for the winter 
lambs except that if they are to reach an age 
of four or live months they should be permit- 
ted to take more exercise, than if they are to 
be finished at the earliest possible moment. 

When grass comes the lambs should be kept 
oif of it until it is actually sweet. The sun 
must have time to get into it before it will be 
strong and good and to eat it before that time 
is a damage alike to the grass and the lambs, 
Fui'thermore when they have a taste of green 
grass they will not eat dry forage well, so there 
is loss all around. Keep them on dry feed 
therefore until there is abundant green grass 
and it is sweet, then you may let them go to 
it without fear of them shrinking. 

There is little danger of scouring from eat- 
ing grass after it has become sweet. The corn, 
of which they are now eating a great deal, has 
a tendency to prevent it and after a day or 
two they will go on as though nothing had 
been changed, happy indeed beyond words in 
the fresh spring sunshine land lush pasture, 
before flies have come or summer heats to op- 
press. 

Here is a great argument for having lambs 



120 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

born in winter, they thus may get such a vigor- 
ous start that when green grass comes they 
are able to make the most of it. There are two 
months in our trying climate of the corn-belt 
that make ideal natural conditions for making 
mutton cheaply; they are May and June, with 
sometimes a bit of April. AA^ierefore the shep- 
herd should plan to have his lambs big and 
strong when this time comes so that they may 
make the most of their opportunities. There is 
no profit as a general thing in carrying any 
over through July, August and September, 
save those that are destined to remain perma- 
nently to replenish the breeding flock. 

FEEDING CORN ON GRASS. 

Wiile in winter time on dry feed it is essen- 
tial tO' feed bran, oilmeal or soy beans to sup- 
ply the requisite protein to the growing lambs 
there is not so much need of supplying protein 
when on grass, that is, if the lambs are des- 
tined for the butcher. Green grass is more 
nitrogenous than dry hay and there are many 
clovers usually mixed in the grass so that a 
ration of corn (maize) alone will serve a good 
purpose. This mav as well be fed in the ear, 
laying it in troughs or if there is a clean 
sward of thick grass the ears may simply be 
scattered about upon it, in a fresh spot each 
day. To do this before the lambs are weaned 
it is of course necessary to fence off a part of 
the -pasture awav from the ewes, allowing only 
the lambs to have access to it. No more corn 
should ever be fed at a time than the lambs 



CARE OF THE EWE AND YOUNG LAMB. 121 

will consume and that the}^ may eat it regu- 
larly care should be taken to see that every 
lamb is there at feeding time. If a few troughs 
are set close by in which a few handfuls of 
oats are strewn that the ewes can get, the shep- 
Jierd can readily call the whole flock up at 
feeding time and the lambs will rush through, 
their creeps to get their corn while their moth- 
ers are munching the sparing allowance doled 
out to them. 

Gains on grass when lambs have had a 
good start in winter are surprisingly rapid. 
By the first of June the February lambs will 
often weigh 80 lbs. and drafts may be made 
and sent away if it is convenient to market in 
that manner, or all may be kept till they aver- 
age about 80 lbs., which will be early in June. 
Tf carefully managed there will be no culls and 
all will be gone and the cash in the owner's 
pocket before the dread of parasites comes. 

Salt is an essential to the sheep and it is 
well to accustom them to the use of it and keep 
it at all times before them. It is especially 
useful in spring when grass comes and no 
doubt checks many bowel troubles when they 
have access to it. 

SUMMER SHADE. 

Shade is essential in our climate of the corn- 
belt. Even in April sheep will begin to seek 
the shade during the warmer parts of the day 
and by May and June it is very necessary. 
Where the pasture is near the barn the cool, 
dark lower story, where were the winter quar- 



122 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

ters, is the ideal place for the flock. It should 
be kept well bedded down and thus there is 
saved a good deal of fertility that would other- 
wise perhaps be heaped up in fence corners 
or beneath trees where it would do the pasture 
Jittle good. The sheep prefer the darkness of 
the barn to the semi-shadow of trees and it is 
very much better and safer for them for rea- 
sons that we will presently take up under the 
subject of parasitic infestation. 

In this barn basement one should each day 
])ut down a little fresh hay and usually the 
flock will eat quite a bit of it. In connection 
with their green forage it is to them what dry 
bread and butter are to the boy eating green 
apples in summer time. It is even a good 
])ractice to salt the sheep in summer by sprink- 
ling brine over dry hay in the barn, thus en- 
couraging them to eat as much of it as they 
will. Of course there are locations where hay 
is hard to get and pasture is in excess. There 
this would not be good practice, but all through 
the region of the corn-belt hay is abundant 
and really more economical to produce on high- 
priced land than pasture. 

Corn may be fed to the lambs also in the 
barn basement if the flock has access to it. 
There is but one thing to fear, that the place 
may be allowed to become foul so that fleeces 
will be soiled and feet endangered but it is at- 
tention to these little things that assures suc- 
cess. 

Shade in fields may be had best by movable 
sheds. These may be made on runners, simple 



CARE OF THE EWE AND YOUNG LAMB. 123 

roofs about 16 feet square and not high, open 
at the sides, made of pine boards. They need 
not be rain-proof since sun is what we are 
seeking" to slielter against. • A shed of this size 
will shelter 40 sheep and as it may be fre- 




A CARLOAD OF YEARLING WETHERS. 

quently moved there will be an enrichment of 
a good many spots during the summer. The 
writer has on the farm on which he lives a 
spot where his father forty years before had a 
temporary sheep shelter that still ])roduces 



124 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

crops remarkable for their distinguishing 
greenness and rankness. 

There are reasons why we should not permit 
the sheep to shade where they will, along 
fences and beneath trees. First the manure is 
wasted there ; then the shade is seldom really 
satisfactory. Sufficient in the early morning the 
sun has by noon moved so that it is no longer 
comfortable and the silly flock will suffer much 
before moving away. Worst of all is the dan- 
ger to the health of the sheep through x>ara- 
sitic infection. Lying much in one place there 
is an accumulation of droppings presumably 
bearing germs of various harmful parasites 
such as stomach worms, throat worms, nodular 
disease and the like. The droppings stimulate 
the growth of sweet, rich grasses here. The 
germs harbor on the roots and about the base 
of these grasses. Lambs living in shade near- 
by become hungry and venturing into the sun 
a little way nibble at these rich grasses. It is 
worth noting that sheep will the more greedily 
eat grass that grows strong, from manured 
land, than that which is thin and tough, growing 
on poor soil. The lambs, then, nibbling this 
thick grass, which is thus kept short, take in 
many germs of stomach worms and other para- 
sites which their mothers have deposited there 
with their dung. Thus disease creeps in the 
flock. In England the writer has seen shep- 
lierds put fences of hurdles about trees to pre- 
vent ewes lying beneath them when on grass 
and explaining that they found when the ewes 
laid in the shade of those trees they ^'took cold 



CARE OF THE EWE AND YOUNG LAMB. 125 

from the draughts and coughed." The facts 
were correctly observed but the reasoning was 
defective; it was not the ^^ draught" that made 
the sheep cough but the throat worms and lung 
worms instead that gained entrance from the 
infected area of the tree shade. 

MARKETING THE SPRING LAMB. 

Through Virginia and Kentucky there are 
many sheep breeders wiio make a practice of 
growing their lambs on grass alone, having 
them born usually in March and putting them 
off fat in June. They usually contract them 
ahead for about $6 per cwt. They find 
this business very iDrofitable and thus theiv 
rough lands devoted to sheep pastures steadily 
im])rove rather than deteriorate. 

It is a temptation to the young shepherd to 
keep the lambs over till fall or perhaps to feed 
them again the following winter. This seldom 
pays so well as to have them fat early and get 
rid of them then at a good price. When they 
come to market as late as August and from 
then to Christmas they must compete with 
lambs grown on the ranges under much more 
favorable conditions for cheap production. 
Moreover, the lambs during the hot summers 
of the corn-belt do not gain much fat ; if in fact 
they hold what they made in May and June 
they do well, and there is besides that terrible 
danger, the parasite. 

DOCKING. 

Unless one is certain that his lambs will go 
early to market, say at an age not exceeding 



126 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

three months, he had better dock and castrate 
them. Tails are unnecessary appendages to a 
modern sheep and are apt to become fouled. 
A docked lamb has a squaier look and seems 
fatter than one witli a tail. What blood goes 
to nourish a useless tail would add to the 
growth of the rest of the body no doubt. Dock- 
ing may be done at a very early age, within 
ten days after birth if the lamb is strong, and 
there is tlien slight shock. Tliey may be sev- 
ered with one stroke of a sharp knife, (cutting 
from the under side) or by use of a mallet and 
chisel, but a better and safer way when i)ure- 
bred and well fed lambs are docked is by use 
of hot docking pincliers. These are readily 
made by the country blacksmith. Tliey are 
sliaped like large shoeing pinchers only much 
heavier and with a wider opening to admit 
any tail, for sometimes one will wish to dock 
a mature sheep or cut off a scrotum from an 
old ram. They should be thin at the edge but 
not very sharp and thick back of it to hold the 
heat. The manner ' of operation is to have a 
board witli a hole bored througli it of a proper 
size to admit the tail of the lamb. This board 
protects the adjacent parts against the heat of 
the pinchers. Tliey are heated to redness and 
quickly sever the tail which will not bleed a 
drop. Some disinfectant is then applied and 
the lamb let go. After flies come one must 
watch that the stumps do not become infested 
with maggots ; there is no other danger. Pure- 
bred and well fed lambs will sometimes bleed 
to death when their tails are cut with knife or 



CAKE OF THE EWE AND YOUNG LAMB. 



127 



chisel. When no docking pinchers are at hand 
the stumps may be corded. 

CASTRATION OF OLD RAMS. 

These docking pinchers are convenient 
things to have for castration of old rams, or of 
anv sheep past the age of lambhood. The 
method is to lay the ram on his back ; one man 
seizes the scrotum and testicles and pulls them 
out from the body and another simply severs 
them all together with the docking pinchers 
used very hot. 

There is no bleeding, though the operation 
should not be too hastily performed, as there 
is need of a moment's contact with the hot iron 
to sear the arteries, and the application of dis- 
infectants completes the operation. A thm 
board may keep the heat from scorching the 
body. The writer has thus operated on a six- 
year-old ram and had him get up and go to 
eating hay quite unconcerned. It is probable 
that the hot iron destroys the sensibility to 
pain to quite an extent. 

CASTRATION OF LAMBS. 

Castration of young lambs is a very simple 
process. The lambs should be two weeks old 
and strong. The end of the scrotum is cut 
off, the testicles made to emerge and are then 
pulled out with the adhering cords. Many 
shepherds practice seizing them with their 
teeth; this is the common practice on many 
AVestern ranches. It is not usually necessary 
to apply anything in case of these young lambs 



128 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

but a mixture of lard and turpentine, or tallow 
and turpentine, combined in proportion so as 
to be soft. This will deter germs and make heal- 
ing more rapid. There should not be a loss 
from docking and castration of more than one 
lamb in 500 and it is a satisfaction to have 
both done so that whatever age the lambs may 
reach they will not in marketing suffer a 
*'dock" because of their ''bucky" condition. 

WEANING. 

As a rule it is not necessary to wean lambs 
before they go to market. If they are fed 
right they will while sucking their mothers 
reach a weight of 75 to 85 lbs., if of mutton 
breeds. There is nothing better than mothers' 
milk except more mothers' milk! Lambs that 
are to remain on the farm, however, should 
be separated from the ewes when ten or twelve 
weeks old, or when the advent of warm weather 
makes parasitic infection a danger. An ex- 
ception may be made of the ewe lambs, which 
may in some cases run with their mothers until 
they are weaned naturally. The advantage of 
weaning is that it makes possible the separa- 
tion of the young and old and thus the young 
things are put by themselves on clean pasture 
where there can be no contaminated grass 
and thus they escape infection and parasitic 
diseases. The proper way to wean lambs is 
by taking away the ewes, leaving the lambs 
in the pasture where they are accustomed 
to run. If there can be built there a 
small yard or corral having creeps through 



CARE OP THE EWE AND YOUNG LAMB. 129 

which the lambs can run and the ewes, 
after being away from the lambs for 12 
honrs are returned and yarded there the 
lambs will run in and milk them out for you 
and when they have again gone out to feed 
the ewes may be taken away for another pe- 
riod. Thus there is a gradual separation, 
neither ewes nor lambs experiencing a shock, 
and if the ewes are put on rather sparse 
picking they will soon be dry. There is but 
one danger, viz., there may be some ewes yet 
milking so heavily that their lambs will suffer 
from gorging upon their return. The watchful 
shepherd will be aware of such a case and 
catching her will milk her out somewhat before 
letting the lamb at her, or if it be a late-born 
lamb allowing her to run with it a little 
longer. 



CHAPTER V. 



SUMMER CAEiE AND MANAGEMENT. 

THE EWE FLOCK. 

In winter the shepherd is a god to his flock. 
Shut away from natural sources of food supply 
the sheep depend entirely upon his providence 
and therefore their thrift rests entirely upon 
las knowledge and willingness to give. In sum- 
mer Nature provides forage in abundance and 
turned out in the fields the sheep can choose 
as their instincts prompt them. They should 
then thrive upon pasture as nowhere else. 
They would were it not for two things: one 
that the shepherd too often considers a ^^ pas- 
ture" as being an enclosure surrounded by a 
good fence, regardless of what the forage may 
be within ; the other that in summer time come 
pests of flies, maggots and worms, internal 
parasites. The shepherd who thoroughly 
learns the lesson of prevention of these pests 
will find his work a joy and will stay wdth it 
and make a large profit from his flock. The 
man who simply turns the flock to pasture and 
gives it no more attention or thought will very 
likely find himself confronted with a lot of dis- 
eased and unprofitable sheep within a few 

(130) 



> 

o 

o 

6 
o 







SUMMER CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 133 

years and his farm perhaps so infected with 
germs of parasites that there is no longer any 
profit in keeping sheep there. 

Most of the trouble comes from the internal 
parasites, and while there is a long list of 
them that afflict sheep nearly all the trouble 
in our country comes from two or three spe- 
cies. By far the most i^revalent and trouble- 
some is the twisted stomach worm (strongylus 
contortus). This inhabits the fourth stomach 
of the ewe and she carries it through the winter 
even 'though she may seem to be in good 
health. In spring and during summer the 
worms become tilled with eggs, "ripen" and 
pass away. Just how the young germs then 
re-enter the sheep or find a home in the more 
tender stomachs of the young lambs no one 
knows. They probably hatch in shallow pools 
of stagnant water (infectious in Texas and 
New Mexico are thought to be by this means) 
or they attach tliemselves to the moist grass 
close to the ground and are taken in from 
that position. It is noticed that old and rich 
sheep pastures covered with short, sweet grass 
are frequentlv the most fatal to young lambs 
even when there is no stagnant water with 
them. 

It is not too much to say that the stomach 
worm has done more to discourage sheep hus- 
bandry in the corn-belt of America than all 
other causes put together and many a man 
has gone out of business from the depredcV 
tions of this tiny enemv who did not even 
know that such a pest existed. 



134 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

The symptoms of infection from stomach 
worms are, first, the wool appears lusterless 
and if pressed with the liand does not spring 
out again as wlien the animal is in vigorous 
health. Looking more closely, the red in the 
veins in and about the eye seems pale and 
when you part the wool the skin has lost its 
pinkness and if the disease has progressed 
far it looks white and chalky. There is a dis- 
ordered digestion and perhaps a depraved ap- 
]ietite, the animal may gnaw earth, rotten 
wood or bark, there may be diarrhea or con- 
stipation. Before death comes there will ]>rob- 
ably be "black scours." Old sheep seldom 
die from stomach worms but are depleted in 
vitality by the pest while lambs may die in 
great numbers. 

Stomach worms seldom trouble shepherds 
in cool regions and there is some evidence 
that a temperature of 50 degrees in the soil 
]>revents their development. Therefore they 
do not spread through the flock until warm 
weather, which may come in May and certain- 
ly comes in June. Up to that time the lamb 
crop is comparatively safe to run with the 
mothers; after that the idea of the twisted 
stomach worm must be kept ever in mind. 

It may be well here to call attention to the 
fact that there are considerable regions in 
America where fear of the stomach worm is 
not felt. In Massachusetts, Maine, New Hamii- 
shire and Vermont there is little or no evi- 
dence of strongylus infestation. Northern New 
York and the mountain regions of that state 



SUMMER CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 135 

should be almost exempt from danger, if flocks 
were properly managed there. Ontario, Can- 
ada, seems to be without the dread pest. The 
writer has seen wonderful flocks in Vermont 
and Ontario managed very simply on thick, 
sweet blue-grass and white clover pastures 
and without a trace of this malady. The road- 
side sheep of Ontario graze perennially on 
the same restricted areas and escape infec- 
tion. So in northern Michigan, in the Upper 
Peninsula especially, is a grand field for easy 
and almost care-free shepherding. Northern 
Minnesota and Wisconsin should prove little 
subject to this pest. 

One evidence that cool climates deter the 
development of the strongylus contortus is 
seen in northern England and in Scotland. 
On the Cheviot hills flocks grow as thick as 
the grass will bear and for many centuries 
this has been so. In Scotland the same is true 
and the writer in a rather careful study of 
conditions there saw no evidences whatever 
of infestation of this pest. There is some par- 
asitism in that region but it is more likely 
to be of tapeworms or the brain parasite that 
causes ^^gid" or *^ staggers." 

It is a matter of wonder to the writer that 
more men do not in New England and our 
other northern border states turn their atten- 
tion to sheep growing on a scale large enough 
to make it a business. There should be whole 
regions given up to the breeding of sheep and 
such breeds as the Cheviot, Lincoln or Cots- 
wold would there find a congenial home, while 



136 



SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 



Shropshires and Southdowns would thrive well 
and furnish the market with prime mutton. 
Shepherding without the fear of stomach 
worm infestation is a delightful occupation. 

The simplest method of keeping the lambs 
in health in the summer time is to separate 
them from the ewes and put them on grazing 
that has had no sheep on it for a year, or at 




COTSWOLD EWES. 

least that has had no sheep since the previous 
fall. We will take up the care of the lambs a 
little later. 

'The ewe flock is easily kept in health. Ma- 
ture sheep are resistent to parasites unless 
they are depleted in vitality by reason of be- 
ing bred too young, or by suckling their lambs 
when poorly nourished. It is only necessary 
to give them sound grass and as good a varie- 



SUMMER CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 137 

ty of herbage as is at hand and to change them 
from one pasture to another about once in ten 
days or a .fortnight. The old adage, '^ change 
of pasture makes fat. sheep/' is true and it 
depends upon two reasons : change gives chance 
for fresh herbage to spring up and it gives 
parasitic germs chance to die before finding 
again a living place in the body of its former 
host. It is better then to divide large sheep 
pastures into several divisions and during 
warm weather, sav from the middle of May 
till the middle of September, to change the 
flock from one division to another, letting cat- 
tle or horses follow them, or letting the pas- 
tures have rest till the flock comes back again. 
It would not help matters any to keep sheep 
in each division and change by transposition, 
a common and sinful practice, as one lot 
would readily infect another. It is not good 
management therefore fully to stock a pas- 
ture with sheep in any part of the United 
States east of a line ininning about with the 
100th meridian, or roughly along the western 
limit of the corn-belt. The exception to this 
rule would be in the case of high mountain 
pastures or in the far north, where the air and 
soil are cool enough to deter the spread of 
parasites. 

These stomach worms are not very hard- to 
destrov or drive out of the body of the sheep. 
The writer introduced the 2:asoline treatment 
into the United States and it has given excel- 
lent results in his practice. Coal tar creosote 
is said to be as good md perhaps better. We 



138 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

will give explicit directions for administering 
these remedies further on. 

Besides the stomach worm there is the worm 
that makes the nodular disease of the intes- 
tines. Any obser^^ant man who has dissected 
a mature sheep has often noticed on the small 
intestines little nodules or ''knots." These 
are really small tumors, filled with a greenish, 
cheesy substance. They do not do much harm 
when they are few in number but the trouble 
is a cumulative one and the numbers of the 
nodules increase until after a time digestion 
and absorptioii are much interfered with. 
Sometimes parts of the intestines become cal- 
cified, that is, so impregnated with lime salts 
that they are almost like stone. Death en- 
sues in a longer or shorter time from the 
nodular disease. It does not work quickly as 
does the disease caused by the stomach worm. 
The w^orm causing these tumors is called oeso- 
phagostoma columbianum. 

This nodular disease is a hard one to cure, 
if indeed it is possible to cure it at all after 
it is established. Prevention is about all that 
we can do. Dr. W. H. Dalrymple of the Louis- 
iana Experiment Station has shown, however, 
that it is readily communicable from affected 
ewes to their lambs through the medium of the 
pasture. He has also demonstrated that where 
diseased ewes are kept confined to the barn 
and their lambs allowed to run on clean pas- 
ture not contaminated by the presence of any 
old sheep the lambs remain healthy and thus 
a new and healthful stock can be had even 



SUMMER CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 139 

from a diseased flock. None of these diseases 
originates spontaneously. Tliere are no other 
known hosts of these diseases than sheep, 
goats and perliaps deer, so it is merely a 
question of starting with the lambs, born free 
of all parasites, and keeping them in health 
by putting them on fresh and uninfected pas- 
ture. 

USE OF SOWN PASTURES. 

The easy way of management is to use only 
the wild or natural grass pastures, the same 
ones year after year, but there is often great 
good resultant from sowing special pasture 
crops for the flock. Eye sown in the fall will 
afford very useful pasture before Christmas 
and again veiy early in spring. If vetches 
are sown with the rye in mild latitudes they 
will together in spring make good grazing, 
and clover sown in March will take the land 
after the rye is gone. Rye is not a rich graz- 
ing crop; in fact, is a poor one, but it adds 
the element of succulence to the diet and thus 
has its value. Then it gives employment and 
exercise in the way that the ewe likes best to 
take it, wandering about the field and picking 
here and there. Then there is almost no dan- 
ger at all of parasitic infection from grazing 
lye, or from grazing any sown crop for that 
matter. Eye where clover is sown with it 
should not be too hard grazed after the clover 
gets started and it is well to cut it for hay 
before it heads. If permitted to liead it be- 
comes woody and makes very inferior hay, 



140 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

and the clover does not come on again so 
quickly. 

OATS AND ALFALFA PASTURE. 

Oats sown early in spring with clover or 
alfalfa form an excellent pasture for about 
two months in late spring and early summer, 
following the use of rye. Oats should be sown 
on good soil or should be well fertilized and 
may be sown rather thickly, as much as two 
bushels per acre, with about a peck of clover 
or alfalfa. If the land is well drained, a clay 
loam, with limestone in it, alfalfa will make 
the best growth and pasture. Eed clover, how- 
ever, thrives on thinner soils than alfalfa and 
is the pioneer among the legumes. On any 
rich limestone clay soils, however, alfalfa is 
the queen of forage crops from Labrador to 
the Gulf. In depasturing oats where legumes 
have been sown with them some judgment must 
be exercised else the delicate clovers will suf- 
fer. It is well to allow the oats to get up 
about eight inches high, then turn in and per- 
mit the sheep to eat them down pretty close, 
which should be done in three or four days. 
If there are not enough sheep to do that, divide 
the field by temporary fences or hurdles, de- 
pasturing a part at a time. 

As soon as the oats are eaten down take the 
sheep off and let the plants come again. Thev 
may thus be repeatedly grazed and the result 
will be a beautiful stand" of clover or alfalfa. 

After midsummer, however, it may be wise 
to keep the flock entirely off this field, letting 



SUMMER CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 148 

the clover or alfalfa get strong to withstand 
the trial of the coming winter. 

Young clover and alfalfa should never be 
grazed hard nor be eaten close the first year 
else the stand will be seriously weakened. 

CLOVEE AND ALFALFA PASTURE. 

By all odds the most useful summer pas- 
tures in the corn-belt are those composed of 
clover or alfalfa. There are several dis- 
tinguishing advantages of these crops: they 
renew the soil, they are rich in protein and add 
to the size, health and vigor of the sheep; they 
afford a great amount of grazing and they are 
almost absolutely free from danger of carrying 
parasitic infection. The reason of this health- 
fulness of these plants is that sheep crop the 
higher leaves and stems, leaving the parts 
close to the ground and thus escape germs 
that may lurk down close to the earth. 

Either red clover or alfalfa is too richly a 
nitrogenous product, however, to be grazed 
alone. Sheep confined to either of them must 
eat too much protein and therefore will crave 
food of more carbonaceous or starchy compo- 
sition. They will greedily eat grasses or even 
hay or dry straw to help balance their ration. 
Therefore it is wise to sow a mixture of 
grasses with the clovers. The best grasses for 
this purpose are smooth brome grass and or- 
chard grass. Either of these come on quickly 
and give a continuous grazing with the clovers. 
Of the two brome grass (Bromus inermis) is 
by far the better, yielding more grazing and 



144 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

being better relished by the stock. Indeed 
this brome grass is one of the best pasture 
grasses we have and of easy culture, though 
it should always be sown in connection with 
some clover, else it fails to yield as it should. 
Red clover and alfalfa should not be mixed 
together. If .they are the red clover having 
the habit of more vigorous growth at first 
crowds badly its slower neighbor. It is wise, 
however, to put about 10 per cent of alfalfa 
seed in all clover mixtures sown on suspected 
alfalfa soil, for the small amount of alfalfa 
will infect the field with the alfalfa bacteria 
so that in after years it may profitably all 
be sown to alfalfa alone. 

DANGER TROM CLOVER AND ALFALFA PASTURE. 

Sheep grazing leguminous crops often suffer 
from hoven, or bloat, caused by the fermenta- 
tion of the tender leaves within the paunch. 
The greatest danger of this is when the clover 
is young and tender and growing rapidly. 

After alfalfa becomes woody there is not 
much danger from bloating. Nor is there so 
much danger when grasses are mixed with the 
clovers in the pasture. After sheep become ac- 
customed to eating the clovers, they have then 
learned somewhat by instinct how much to 
store within. Pasturing on clovers . is never 
absolutely safe, yet certain simple rules will 
almost always prevent trouble. 

First, the clovers should have reached nearly 
to the blossoming stage before turning in 
the sheep. 



SUMMER CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 145 

The sheep should not be hungry. They 
should have a preliminary course of feeding 
of some sort till their appetites are well sated. 
Perhaps a iill-up on good grass pasture will 
generally best aceompiish this. 

They should go on the clover or alfalfa pas- 
ture after eating all they will of other things 
at about ten o'clock in the morning, at a time 
when they naturally prefer to cease eating 
and go to lie in the shade. 

They should be given salt as soon as put 
upon pasture, and salt mixed with air-slaked 
lime should be kept before them. 

They should never thereafter be removed 
night or day, rain or shine, as long as they 
are desired to graze the field. 

Of course they may have the run of an ad- 
jacent grass pasturei, and be permitted to go 
and come at will, but they must never be taken 
away even for a few hours and allowed to get 
hungry and then returned to the clover or 
alfalfa field. If they are, there is danger that 
they will gorge themseh^es too suddenly and 
bloating may result. 

The writer devotes this much space to the 
subject because he has had a long and suc- 
cessful experience in pasturing clover and es- 
pecially alfalfa with sheep, and in this practice 
he has found these rules essential to success. 
It is well worth the risk, seeing that this pas- 
ture returns such well-nourished and healthy 
sheep and is so free from danger of parasitic 
infection. The writer has annually lost from 
2 to 4 per cent from bloat on alfalfa pasture, 



146 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

commonly of animals not in the best health, 
and if it has returned the other 96 or 98 per 
cent in fine health to him, he considers the 
sacrifice of small amount. 

The following remedies for a bloated sheep 
are good: 

When first in distress, administer three 
tablespoonfuls of raw linseed oil in which is 
a teaspoonful or turjjentine. 

If this does not relieve at once, tie or hold 
a large corn cob or stick of similar size cross- 
ways in the mouth like a bridle bit; hold the 
head up, stand astride the ewe and seek gently 
to press out the gas with the knee. Do not 
use too much force. 

Pour several buckets of very cold water 
slowly on the distended side over the paunch. 
This often of itself relieves the distress by 
stopping the accumulation of gas. 

If there is toio much distension for these 
measures to relieve, make an incision on the 
left side, high up, where the greatest disten- 
sion is seen, and let the gas escape. A trochar 
is best for this but a penknife will serve. 
The incision should be just large enough to 
insert some small tube— a small joint of cane 
fishing pole, ai pipe stem or goose quill. 

Keep hold of the tube, else it will slip 
within the paunch and be lost and perhaps do 
serious damage to the sheep. After relief has 
been had disinfect the wound. It should not 
be large enough to need stitches but care jnust 
be had that flies do not blow it. Pine tar will 
repel flies. The wool should be cut away from 
the wound. 




STUDIES IN SHEEP CHARACTER. 



SUMMER CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 149 

There will be some years when there will 
not be occasion for any remedy whatever, and 
with the same treatment there will be at other 
times more or less trouble. During hot and 
wet weather when alfalfa is stimulated to very 
rapid growth more trouble may be expected. 

The writer has been in the habit of pastur- 
ing alfalfa and yet allowing the sheep to shade 
in the barn, permitting them to come off in the 
morning when it got too hot for their comfort. 
He has, however, been careful that a boy 
should stir them out and send them fieldward 
again by three or four o'clock in the after- 
noon. 

In sowing alfalfa that probably may be ])as- 
tured be sure to sow a mixture of brome 
grass (Bromus inermis) with it. A^ liglit 
scattering of brome seed is best, else it will 
soon crowd out the alfalfa. We have had no 
difficulty in eradicating the brome grass when 
after-ward the fields have been cultivated. 

The writer has solved most of the problems 
of summer management in the way outlined. 
One serious trouble, however, remains for 
solution. The ewes w^ill often get too fat 
under such treatment and sometimes refuse to 
breed regularly. He has not yet found a solu- 
tion of this problem. Tn England, where this 
often occurs, the fat ewes would go for mut- 
ton and there would end that difficulty, but 
where one has a flock of pure-bred sheep of 
considerable value this is not a satisfactory 
solution for America. 

We are at present practicing the breeding of 



150 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

these reluctant ewes by compulsion. To catch 
the ewe and permit the ram to serve her seems 
to cause her afterward to come into season 
naturally. We are hopeful of good results. 

Where one is within reach of tracts of rough 
and poor mountain pasture the problem is 
solved in a natural way, by turning the flock 
onto this thin grass where they must take 
abundant exercise by walking and climbing 
and will not find an excess of food. This is the 
natural way of preventing an excess of flesh. 

It is not a safe plan to attempt reduction of 
flesli by over pasturing of small and fertile 
fields. The result is to cause the ewes to gnaw 
into the ground for the herbage there and para- 
sitic infection is pretty sure to follow. 

THE USE OF RAPE. 

lva])e belongs to the same order of i)lants 
as the cabbages and ra])e leaves have a similar 
taste and a])pearance as cabbages. On rich 
soil rape yields an astonishing amount of for- 
age, which must be eaten green, as owing to 
its watery nature it can not be cured into hay. 
There seems a peculiar affinity between the 
cabbage family and the sheep. Common cab- 
bages, thousand-headed kale, rape, swede tur- 
nips—all are greedily eaten and make good, 
healthful development. 

Eape comes in good play during the 
drouths of autumn and after cool, frosty 
weather has stopped the growth of grass in 
the fall. It may be sown in the corn at the 
time of the last working, using about three or 



SUMMER CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 151 

four pounds of seed to the acre and letting 
the cultivator cover it. Should the season 
prove moderately moist thereafter the rape 
will come on and be ready to make a vigor- 
ous growth as soon as the com is cut. By 
the middle of October it may be waist high 
over the field and will afford an immense 
amount of grazing until Christmas or later. 

Care should be taken not to turn on rape 
early in the morning in late fall when it is 
frosted, as every leaf that is bent at that 
time will blacken and decay. It takes a cold 
of about 12 degrees to injure rape if it is not 
disturbed until it has thawed again. 

Sheep will fatten on rape, though an addi- 
tion of grain is profitable and access to a grass 
pasture or the regular feeding of good hay in 
connection Vv^ith it is very desirable. There 
is some danger from bloat in rape feeding, 
though the writer has never had to treat a 
sheep for rape bloating nor lost one. 

The Dwarf Essex seems the best variety to 
sow. 

CABBAGES. 

In fitting sheep for the show ring cabbages 
are almost indispensable and for feeding in 
fall and early winter they are most excellent. 
In many places cabbage gi-ows luxuriantly and 
a given amount of sheep feed can probably 
be as cheaply grown from this plant as in 
any other way. In considering these foods it 
must be borne in mind that a certain portion 
of succulence is absolutely necessary to the 



152 



SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 



sheep if it is to be kept in perfect health. 
It is less trouble to grow the common farm 
crops of grain and hay and sheep can be 
maintained upon them alone, but not in their 
highest degree of health and profit. There 
is also in the rape, turnips and cabbages some 




YEARLING OXFORD RAM. 



quality that makes for healthful growth of 
wool. 

PUMPKINS. 

One of the best autumn and early winter 
supplementary foods for sheep are pumpkins. 
They are readily grown in the cornfield or 



SUMMER CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 153 

in a separate field hj themselves and yield a 
large amount of feed to the acre. Our method 
of growing is to use pumpkin seeds to replant 
with in the cornfield, putting them in where- 
ever missing hills occur. In this manner we 
have secured as high as two tons of pumpkins 




LEICESTER RAM. 



to the acre without in the least injuring the 
crop of corn, provided the season proved 
favorable. In fact, the shading of the ground 
between the com rows by the wide leaves of 
the pumpkin vines seizes to help conserve the 
moisture when it is most needed and the com 
is often the better for the association of the 



154 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

vines. It is safer^ however, to plant pump- 
kins by themselves. 

Pumpkins serve the flock in two ways: first, 
as a direct and healthful food of considerable 
nutritive value and yet never dangerous from 
excessive richness, and next from the direct 
medicinal value of the seeds. Pumpkin seeds 
are among the best vermifuges known. They 
should never be removed from the pumpkins 
but fed all together, and if fed in considerable 
amounts the direct and immediate improve- 
ment in the flock will be very apparent. Tape- 
wonns have never troubled the writer's flock in 
the least and no other reason can be attributed 
than tlie annual liberal pumpkin feeding. 

The way to feed pumpkins is to strew them 
about the pasture without cutting them open 
at all, or at least cutting only a few of them. If 
many are cut the sheep eat only the soft in- 
side parts at first, with the seeds, and might 
in this way get too many seeds for their good, 
whereas when they must gnaw a way into the 
pumpkin they will eat it uj) clean before at- 
tacking another. The pumpkins keep better to 
be scattered over the field than to be piled 
in piles, at least before frost strikes them. 

The secret in growing pumpkins is, first, to 
have the land rich, then to plant a great sur- 
plus of seeds. The striped cucumber beetle 
revels on pumpkin leaves, and if not enough 
are planted for him and you also he will reap 
tlie entire harvest at an early date. They may 
be thinned after beginning to vine. 

It is particularly desirable to have the ewe 



SUMMER CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 155 

flock thriving and increasing in flesh at time 
of breeding. Not only will the lambs con- 
ceived at such a time be of superior vigor but 
there will be a larger number of twins among 
them. 

CAEE OF THE FEET. 

When the sheep are turned to pasture in 
the spring their feet should be carefully 
trimmed and shortened. It is easier to do this, 
however, if they are permitted tO' go^ in the wet 
grass for a day or two and are taken in while 
their feet are yet wet. They will at such a time 
cut like cheese, whereas if they are trimmed 
and shortened. It is easier to do this, however, 
if they are permitted to go in the wet grass 
for a day or two and are taken in while their 
feet are yet wet. They will at such a time 
cut like cheese, whereas if they are trimmed 
when dry they will be very horny in texture, 

Nature evidently intended the sheep for 
climbing over very rocky soils where the feet 
would be subjected to rapid wear. It is prob- 
able, too, that in selecting individuals for their 
superior wool growth the horn growth of the 
feet has kept pace with the wool growth in 
some degree, since there is a relationship be- 
tween horn growth and wool. In any event it 
is vers^ unlikely that with the amount of travel 
needed on arable farms the sheep will suffi- 
ciently wear down their feet to relieve the 
slie|>herd of need tO' trim them twice a year, 
and with some breeds more often. 

The aim of trimming should be to keep the 



156 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

feet as short as possible, not to cut to the 
quick, so that they may be able to stand natur- 
ally and squarely upon them. It is probable 
that lack of trimming is in some degree re- 
sponsible for disease of the feet. Diseases 
may occur, unfortunately, even in feet that 
have been well trimmed, and the subject must 
have attention. 

rOOT-EOT AND FOOT-SCALD. 

The shepherd commonly makes a distinction 
between a simple contagious affection of the 
foot called ''foot scald" and the real and very 
serious disease, also contagious, called foot- 
rot. There seems reason to believe that tliere 
is a form of foot scald that rapidly goes 
through a flock yet readily yields to treat- 
ment that is distinct from the more severe and 
less easily eradicated foot-rot. 

It is the belief of the writer, however, that 
quite often the shepherd hides his genuine foot- 
rot behind the more harmless appellation. 

There is, however, an inflammation of the 
skin between the claws of the foot that does 
not extend beneath the horny covering of the 
foot itself and that yields quite readily to a 
simple treatment of putting the sheep upon 
a dry footing, cleansing from filth and an ap- 
plication of some coal tar .dip or carbolic 
acid. 

AAHien the disease has penetrated beneath the 
shell of the foot and there is found there a 
wateiy, evil-smelling exudation it is genuine 
foot-rot and should have immediate and thor- ■ 



SUMMER CAliE AND MANAGEMENT. 157 

ough treatment, with preventive measures to 
preclude its spreading to' the rest of the flock. 

First it is necessary to pare away all the 
horn that hides the diseased surface. The dis- 
ease heing one of germ origin, there is no 
hope of cure except through the complete de- 
struction of the germs, and they must therefore 
be uncovered from their hiding. A sharp 
knife in the hands of a careful and thorough 
man is a kind thing to the afflicted sheep, even 
though it may cause some temporary pain. 

When once the diseased surface is laid bare 
it is only necessary to wet it well with strong 
solution of blue vitriol (sulphate of copper), or 
butyr of antimony, to bind it up if much horn 
has been cut away and keep the sheep on dry 
footing for a time. 

It is necessary, however, to prevent the 
si>read of the disease through the flock. To do 
this all feet should be carefully trimmed and 
any sore ones given individual treatment. 
Then a trough 6'' wide in the bottom, 12'' 
wide at the top, 12'' deep and about 10' 
long should be made of three two-inch planks. 
This must be enclosed with hurdles so that the 
sheep may be caused to pass through it. The 
writer has fastened such a trough at the door 
of the sheep barn so' that in order tO' pass out 
the flock must pass through the trough. Then 
it was only necessary to confine the flock for a 
time and they would of their own accord go 
out, each one walking through the trough. 

This treatment was given daily for a week 
or so, as it took little of the shepherd's time 



158 ^ SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

and was inexpensive. By this means foot dis- 
orders were eradicated from the flock after 
having' cansed much trouble. 

In the trough was placed a simple lime 
whitewash, in which was sufficient blue vitriol 
to give it a blue color. This effectually pre- 
vented the spread of the disease and cured 
many cases in their incipiency. 

In no other business is it more true that ''a 
stitch in time saves nine" than in the care of 
sheep. 

It is unfortunate that the average American 
shepherd "sells out" when foot disease 
strikes his flock when he can so easily control 
and eradicate the disease. Troubles must 
come in all endeavors, so when one has been 
suffered and the remedy therefor found it 
is not a reason for abandonment of enterprise 
but the more reason for continuance, rather 
than to "fly to troubles we know not of." 

ADVENT OF LATE LAMBS. 

There are situations where it is desirable 
that lambing should be delayed until grass 
comes. When forage and grain are scarce 
and the means not at hand to well nourish the 
ewe after lambing until grass comes, when in- 
deed grass is the chief asset of the she})herd, 
it is wise to time the lambing so that the lambs 
will come at about the same time as the grass. 
Indeed a lamb dropped then will make a far 
better growth than one dropped weeks earlier 
from a poorly-nourished ewe, half starved by 
its mother because she cannot give it much 



SUMMER CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 159 

milk before she herself has been fed. Nor will 
such a ewe respond in her milk flow to green 
grass as she would did her lamb come after 
grass has started anew in her veins a vigorous 
coursing of the vital fluid. 

It is most wise, however, to see to it that 
these late lambing ewes are strengthened by 
some supplementaiy feeding before the lambs 
appear. A little grain feed then will repay 
its cost several times, for the well-nourished 
ewe goes easily through the pains of lambing 
and loves well her offspring if she has milk 
for it inside her udder. 

The shepherd who lambs cm grass may have 
the lamb crop all born within a very few days. 
They will be anxious days while they last, but 
the agony is soon over, seeing that this is 
Nature's time set for this miracle to take 
place, and the ewes naturally conceive readily 
to lamb then. G^reat watchfulness is necessary 
and there are certain helps that may be men- 
tioned. 

THE LAMBING TENT. 

Many Western sheep owners use small shel- 
ter tents, about 36 inches square, supported 
by curved iron rods, to shelter the ewe and her 
lamb from storm. These tents are readily 
carried and set over the ewe any where. They 
serve to keep her and her offsj)ring together 
while they are becoming acquainted and by 
turning the chilling rain save many lambs that 
would otherwise be lost. As these tents are 
inexpensive and can readily be made by the 



160 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

shepherd himself some of them should be at 
hand when an early lambing on grass is 
planned. 

It is desirable to scatter the flock as much 
as iDOSsible at this time, for then the ewes are 
the more readily kept track of and their lambs 
are not so often lost through mixing and stray- 
ing from their mothers. This latter is partic- 
ularly dangerous in case of twins, seeing that 
the ewe is often content if she has one lamb 
with her and seeks the other very little. 

There are exceptions to this rule, however. 
The writer has known Dorset ewes that seemed 
to have perfect memories and a knowledge of 
numbers and would seek as earnestly for a 
strayed twin as though it were a single lost 
lamb. 

Seeing that the ewes at this time must give 
their attention to their lambs and cannot wan- 
der wide in search of food, it is a good plan 
to lamb them on some specially good piece 
of grass. And to aid in keeping them quiet 
the shepherd may carry with him oats, giving 
a handful to the ewe wiierever he finds her. 
It is hardly probable that a larger per cent 
of lambs w^ill be saved by lambing on grass 
than by lambing earlier, nor will they ever be 
so good as early lambs pushed from the start, 
but they may be produced with comparatively 
little trouble and in some situations are the 
only ones that it is practicable to produce. 

No lambs should be permitted to be born 
later than the first of May, except in a high 
mountainous region where grass starts late 



SUMMER CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 161 

and cool summer weather prevails. Lambs 
bom in May, June or July seldom amount to 
much, owing no doubt to the fact that they 
are almost sure to become infested with para- 
sites. Between April and September, then, 
there should be no lambing done. Rather than 
to lamb out of season the ewe should be al- 
lowed to go over open and she may be bred in 
the spring for fall lambs. 

FALL LAMBS. 

The best sheep are developed from fall-born 
lambs. They may begin to come in September. 
From this time on till winter the conditions 
are excellent for their growth and develop- 
ment. The weather then is favorable, food is 
abundant, the ewes are easily made to milk 
largely and instead of the weather becoming 
warmer and more oppressive it becomes stead- 
ilv more and more stimulating to the lambs. 
And, best of all, there is little danger of para- 
sites at this time. The fall lambs come out 
in spring half matured and able to go safely 
and healthfully through the trials of summer. 
Or if they are sold at the market they brmg 
long prices in winter time. It is not altogether 
easy to get ewes to lamb in the fall. Certain 
breeds refuse altogether to do this, but with 
some of the Merinos and their grades and the 
Dorsets and Dorset grades it is not so diffi- 
cult of accomplishment. To get the ewes to 
breed in spring the conditions of fall must 
be complied with as nearly as possible. 

First, the ewes must have their lambs of the 



162 



SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 



previous crop born as early as possible so that 
they may be weaned and new strength gained 
from a term of rest. 

Next, they mnst be sufficiently well fed so 




IMPORTED HAMPSHIRE RAM LAMBS. 

that they will feel an ascending current of 
health throughout their veins. 

They must have the ram turned with them 
before warm weather comes on. April and 
May are the months in which to breed ewes 
for fall lambs. 



Summer care and management. 163 

The rams must not as a usual thing be per- 
mitted to run continually with the ewes at this 
time. If they do they themselves soon aquiesce 
in the idea that it is an unnatural time for 
breeding. It is wise if the ram can be kept up 
and turned with the flock for only an hour or 
two each day, as described in earlier pages 
of this work. Or two rams may be used, their 
rivalry inciting them to extra exertion. 

There is no doubt whatever that the breed- 
ing instinct is in part a result of mental pro- 
cesses that may be stimulated by suggestion. 
This is almost as true of the sheep as it is 
of higher races of animals. The ram that per- 
sistently courts the ewe may after a time so 
divert (by his suggestion) blood to her repro- 
ductive organs as to cause her to come in heat 
and conceive at a time when naturally these 
organs would be in a dormant condition. 

If the shepherd does not care to risk the 
uncertain m.ental influence of the ram he may 
practice holding the ewe and compelling her 
to accept the attention of the ram once. This 
often supplies stimulation enough to cause her 
to come naturally in heat and to conceive at 
the later service. 

Pall-born lambs in America have developed 
into as fine sheep as ever were produced in 
England. This is true of few lambs born in 
spring, no matter how skillfully they have been 
treated. Fall-born ram lambs make grand 
strong fellows when they are yearlings and 
ready to go into service. 



CHAPTER VI 



WASHING, SHEARING AND MARKING. 

Tlie washing of sheep to remove the surplus 
oil in the wool was once a universal prac- 
tice. It was one of those old practices, like 
})utting ''redding" on the fleeces to make the 
sheep "look attractive" (!) that are hard to 
account for. The washing did not x)repare the 
wool for manufacture nor render it more eas- 
ily scoured hy him. It did, however, render it 
lighter, and therefore the buyers found washing 
to their advantage. 

At the present time few sheep, comparative- 
ly speaking, are washed before shearing. It 
may, however, be profitable in some localities 
where buyers discriminate sharply against un- 
washed wool to continue to put the sheep 
through the water as of old. 

If the sheep owner can find a buyer who 
really knows his business and buys honestly, 
he will get as much for his fleeces unwashed as 
washed, and can therefore save himself the 
disagreeable task and the flock the injury that 
such a shock is sure to inflict. 

One serious disadvantage of washing is that 
it can not be done safely and comfortably until 

(164) 



WASHING, SHEARING AND MARKING. 165 

the advent of warm weather, whereas the flock 
should be shorn niueli before that time, unless 
it be a hill flock running without shelter. 

The writer, living on the fortieth parallel, 
usually shears his ewe flock the first week in 
Apriland sometimes the last week in March. 

There are several advantages of this early 
shearing. Aj^out this time ewes that have 
been well fed often experience a little loosen- 
ing of the wool, as though it were time to shed 
it off, and locks will be lost, particularly about 
the neck. 

Then the advent of warm days causes a feel- 
ing of languor and the sheep do not eat and 
thrive as has been their wont. And again, 
there are many showers in April and the flock 
with fleeces on literally ''has not sense enough 
to come in out of the rain" and the fleeces 
become drenched and heavy. Then they kee]) 
their lambs out in the rain, whereas if they 
were shorn they would flee to their sheds as 
soon as the first drops struck them. 

Any one who has once tried this early shear- 
ing will continue it. Should the flock be poorly 
fed, however, and unsheltered, the fleeces 
should be left on until the middle of May. 

The amount of wool taken off in a period 
of years will probably be nearly the same 
whether shorn in April, May or June, with the 
l)robability that the early-shorn sheep through 
their greater vigor and healthfulness may 
shear the most. 

For washing sheep a considerable body of 
water is required. It is usual to take advan- 



166 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

tage of a creek or natural pool. The sheep 
are immersed, the wool squeezed a little be- 
tween the hands and they are permitted to go 
out and drain themselves on the bank. No 
soap is used, as the oil of the wool is itself 
readily dissolved in water, and it is this oil 
only that is sought to be removed. It is usual 
to allow ten days or two weeks to elapse after 
washing before the sheep are shorn ; and, in 
fact, it is not easy to shear them as soon as 
they are dry owing to a difficulty in penetrat- 
ing the wool with the shears until more oi! 
has been secreted in the wool. 

WASHING AND SHEARING. 

Tlie dipping tank can be used for washing 
shc^ep, but not unless there can in some way be 
secured a continuous stream of water to flow 
through it. The shee]) should not drain back 
into the tank in case it is used. It is to be 
hoped that this custom of wasliing will soon 
be one of ancient history wherever sheep are 
grown. 

Some shee]> owners have their fleeces tub- 
washed after being taken from the sheep's back. 
This is not difficult to do, only that the drying 
is slow and it ought not to be necessary. 

SHEARING. 

The shearing of sheep is an art not to bo 
immediately learned by the novice. It requires 
several seasons' ijractice to make an expert 
shearer of a man. There is, unfortunately, a 
scarcity of good shearers in all our Eastern 



WASHING, SHEARING AND MARKING. 167 

states. It is a trade that any vigorous young 
man may learn with sure expectation of mak- 
ing good wages for some weeks each season. A 
good shearer will shear from 45 to 100 sheep 
in a day, using common hand shears. He will 
get for his service from 4 to 10 cents each, per- 
haps 6 cents being the average price. 

The shearing place should be in some light, 
airy part of the bam. A clean platform on 
which to work is necessary. If nothing else is 
available, since sheep barns have usually the 
natural earth for floor, a spare barn door may 
be taken from its hangings and laid down for 
temporary use. A small pen close by holds 
enough sheep in readiness to keep the shearer 
busy for some hours. 

In back regions it is customary to tie the 
legs of the sheep, place it on a low platform or 
box and set two men, or one man and a boy 
at work cutting off the fleece. This is a child- 
ish and unskilled method that should not be 
imitated. 

The sheep is a peculiar animal, directly 
sensitive to touch. Tie the le^s, or even touch 
them, it responds by struggling to be free. 
Turn it so that it can not get its feet to the 
ground and its struggles cease, as though it 
knew the hopelessness of struggling. 

Following this thougcht, if one attempts to 
hold a horned sheep by the horn it continues 
to struggle and can not seem to understand 
why it is not free. It can not feel the press of 
the hand upon the horn. Hold the same sheep 
by a touch under the chin and if it has had 



168 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

a trifle of training it, feeling your Jiand, yields 
and stands dutifully. 

The shearer then, without tying the feet, 
turns the sheep upon its rump, with its head 
and shoulders resting against him, supported 
by the left arm and with the shears in the 
j'ight hand o]3ens the wool, usually on the right 
shoulder, and proceeds to clip it away, keeping- 
it as much as ])08sihle in one piece. That is, 
he strips it away easily and gently as he 
would remove a coat. It is essential that he 
so bend the sheep's body that the skin will be 
at all times tight. If this is done it is easy 
to cut the wool closely and there is little dan- 
ger of cutting the skin. 

When the wool is removed all very dirty 
])ieces should be separated from it and never 
tied up with the fleece. There is need of hon- 
esty in tying wool and nothing but wool should 
go inside a fleece. The fleece is rolled with the 
belly and loose ends inside, the cut fibers out. 
It is tied, not too tightly, w^itli special wool 
twine wra]iped twice or at most three times 
around. 

The use of binder twine or any but special 
wool twine greatly injures the wool, as the 
small bits of fiber get in it and not taking dyes 
must be picked out by hand. This occasions a 
loss of sometimes as much as 5 cents per i>ound 
which must eventually come from the producer, 
since manufacturers learn what sort of stuff is 
to be expected from a region and bid for it ac- 
cordingly. 

There is no need of a l>ox or wool table for 



WASHING, SHEARING AND MARKING. 



169 



tying a very compact bundle, since buyers pre- 
fer the ordinary, rather loosely tied fleeces. 

SHEARING MACHINES, 

The use of machines has now become quite 
common in shearing sheep and they are suf- 
ficiently well ])erfected so that they do their 




HAND-SHEARING MACHINE. 

work with little trouble from breakage. It is 
far easier to learn to shear sheep with the 
machine than by hand, though old shearers 
l)refer the hand shears and can shear as many 
sheep in the old-fashioned way as with the 



170 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

machine. Not so, however, with the novice ; he 
will shear twice as many with the machine as 
he will with hand shears. 

Then the work is far hotter done with the 
machine. There are no cuts from shears and the 
fleeces are taken off closely and evenly. There 
need he made no second cuts, which cause 
short fihers, little hotter than shoddy. 

The machine shear in careful hands will cut 
in two every tick and leave the sheep clean of 
that vermin. 

Against its use is the cost of the machine, 
ahout $15.00 for a hand machine, and the cost 
of re])airs. If well oiled and cared for, how- 
ever, it will last for many seasons with occa- 
sional renewal of cutting parts. 

Then til ere is needed a hoy to turn the 
crank, so that its use requires two persons to 
shear a sheep. As the hoy is unskilled and 
may usually be had for a small sum this is not 
important. Altogether the writer advises the 
man who has not available skilled shearers 
of the old-fashioned type and does the shear- 
ing himself to use the machine. If he must 
hire shearers he had better let them furnish 
their own tools. 

There are power machines for large plants. 
These are operated very successfully by gaso- 
line engines and there are small power ma- 
chines with two or more sets of shears. These 
are entirely practical but it is not usually 
]3rofitable to install a power plant for fewer 
than 1,000 sheep. 

When sheep are to go to market after being 




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WASHING, SHEARING AND MARKING. 173 

shorn the machine is a saving since it takes 
off more wool than hand shears can. The sav- 
ing is from 2 to 8 ounces. A saving of 4 
ounces, or M pound, would pay the cost of 
shearing. All sorts of sheep are shorn by 
machines, though they work esx)ecially well on 
Downs, Long- Wools and Dorsets. They are 
difficult to operate on Western lambs that have 
been dijjped and placed on feed in winter, ow- 
ing to tlie peculiar condition of the w^ool which 
seems to be affected by the shock of transpor- 
tation and dipping and tO' be dead at that point 
and consequently hard to get shears into. 

A fat sheep nicely shorn with the machine 
shears is a very attractive object and a])pears 
fatter than when shorn by hand. 

The shearing machine should not be used in 
midsummer, or if it is it should not be set to 
run very close, else there will not be enough 
wool left on to protect tlie sheep from flies 
and sunburn and it will suffer severely before 
the wool has grown out again. 

It is in some situations a good plan to shear 
a flock of ewes twice a year, once very early, 
say in late March, and again in August. The 
wool will not be quite so valuable, for it will 
be shorter, but the relief to the sheep in get- 
ting rid of its warm coat at this sultry time is 
remarkable and it will thrive far better than 
unshorn, lambing stronger if it is to drop fall 
or early winter lambs and conceiving earlier if 
it is not yet bred. The writer has })racticed 
this and has not had to take more than one 
cent per pound less for his short wool, which 



174 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

loss is not worth mentioning when the advan- 
tage to the flock is considered. 

It is a custom of some shepherds and feed- 
ers to shear sheep and lambs before placing 
them on feed in the fall and early winter. 

There is little advantage in this. It forces 
and crowds them close together, and they do not 
gain any better. 

The one advantage is that it is easier to free 
them from ticks after they are shorn and if 
they are dipped less fluid is required. 

MAKKING. 

When sheep go to pasture it is well to have 
a mark upon them so that in case they acci- 
dentally become mixed with other sheep they 
may be known. 

A large letter made of wood, with a handle 
to it, is used, some thick paint serving for ink. 
Linseed oil and lampblack make a durable mark, 
plainly seen. 

Permanent marking is done by splitting, 
cropping or notching the ears. This is the 
universal custom on Western ranges, but such 
disfigurement is seldom practiced in the East- 
ern states. There are metal labels that are 
inserted in the ears; these bear the name of 
the owner, or numbers, or the numbers as- 
signed to registered sheep by the breed secre- 
taries. 

There are various forms of these metal ear 
labels. None of them is very sure to remain 
in the ear. The difficulty is that the ears be- 
come sore and pus formation eats away so 



WASHING, SHEARING AND MARKING. 175 

inucli of the tissue that the labels drop out or 
they are caught and torn out by some branch 
or nail. They may remain in place for years 
and they ' may become lost in a short time. 
There is a right and a wrong way to put these 
metal tags in. 

The right way is to use a punch, cutting out 
an oval bit of the ear tissue, and to make the 
hole some days before the label is inserted, 
giving the ear time to heal in the meantime. 

Then the hole must be so carefully gauged 
that the label will not compress the ear, yet 
will fit snugly and present little of projection 
to catch and cause it to be torn out. If this 
course is taken most of the labels will remain 
in place. 

THE TATTOO MAHK. 

The best method of permanently marking a 
sheep is by the tattoo mark. This is especially 
applicable to sheep with light-colored ears, 
though it is used on some of the Down breeds. 

The tattoo properly put in is absolutely per- 
manent. It does not annoy the sheep and once 
put in is a sure record as long as the animal 

lives. 

There are sets of tattooing instruments sold 
bv dealers in shepherds' supplies. These con- 
sist of a frame with handles like pinchers m 
which are set removable letters and numbers. 
These letters and numbers have a great num- 
ber of sharp points, forming the characters, 
and the handles when closed cause these points 
to prick the required characters. 



176 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

India ink is the i)igment used and when 
pressed into these minute wounds remains 
there, leaving an indelible black tracing. There 
is danger of the careless or inexperienced 
operator making failure with this tattooing 
outfit, for certain things are essential. The 
levers must be so adjusted that when closed 
the points will prick evenly the required char- 
acters in a thick sheet of paper or cardboard. 
If any do not ]nake their mark the instrument 
is out of adjustment or the letters worn out. 
These points rust if not kept oiled when not in 
use. 

Then in placing in the letters or figures one 
nmst be sure that he has them in right. They 
are like type, reversed, so that it is puzzling 
at first to the operator to use them and it is 
well to test them on a bit of cardboard be- 
fore using them on the sheep. After once the 
mark is in the ear there is no erasing it. 

Then there should be used a great abundance 
of the India ink, smearing as much on the 
points as possible and afterward rubbing more 
in the ear with the finger. If once the pricks 
are made in the ear and the ink rubbed in then 
the deed is done and will endure. 

In England there are men who make a busi- 
ness of marking sheep with the tattoo mark. 
It is the official marking of a number of breeds 
and the Secretary often attends in person to 
tlie marking. It is the most desirable mark 
for any pure-bred sheep that is to' be retained 
as a breeder, though it is hardly necessary to 
use this mark on stock sheep that are soon to 



WASHING, SHEARING AND MARKING. 177 

be fattened. It may, however, save much dis- 
pute if all stock ewes have their owner's mark, 
seeing that they may become mixed on pasture. 

MARKING PUEE-BKED LAMBS. 

When lambs that are pure-bred are to be 
registered it is essential that the shepherd so 
mark them at an early age as to identify them 
later according to their parentage. This is 
by no means an easy task. A very small lamb 
can not safely cany a mark in its ear and 
there is a little trouble later on in discovering 
which ewes are the mothers of the lambs. 

The writer has found a good plan to be to 
let them run until they are well grown, but 
still sucking, then separate them from their 
mothers some morning and keep them apart 
until they are eager for association with their 
dams. Then the lambs may be caught, one at 
a time, and in one ear a tattoo number be put. 
This should be in the opposite ear from where 
the permanent number is to go. These num- 
bers may begin each year at No. 1, running 
up as high as necessary. 

Having put the number in the lamb's ear 
and entered it in a note book it is placed with 
the ewes, where it soon singles out its mother 
and while sucking she is caught and her num- 
ber noted and entered opposite that of the 
lamb. A name may be given the lamb at the 
same time, though individual names except 
for exceptionally good lambs are hardly worth 
while. It is easier and as well to designate 
them simply by numbers, identifying them 



178 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

with tlie name of the breeders or the farm, 
as "Jones' 99" or "Woodland 174." 

Of course these permanent numbers must be 
consecutive from year to year else the Secre- 
tary would find duplicates in his records. 

After the lambs have been weaned and are 
sufficiently developed to indicate which are 
worth permanent record their records are sent 
to the breed Secretary and he records them 
and sends with their certificates the Associa- 
tion number, which must be placed in the ear 
left blank for that ])urpose. 

Care must be taken not to make confusion 
by using occasionally the wrong ear, and it is 
well to use numbers of different size for this 
first marking'. If they are a trifle larger than 
the permanent numbers it is well, seeing that 
the ear will grow, and if they were made a lit- 
tle smaller they w^ould in time become of the 
same size as the ones later put in. 

The writer is of the opinion that shepherds 
are usually very careless in assigning mothers 
to lambs for record and guess more than they 
should. 

The English system is to record the indi- 
vidual rams and the ewes by flocks only. See- 
ing that they have achieved glorios results in the 
development of breeds by their course it would 
seem presum])tious for the American breeders 
to claim sui:)eriority of method. The writer 
unhesitatingly declares that the English system 
should be adopted on this side of the water 
and sees but one objection to it, that, perhaps, 
a fatal one, that in recordina: ])v flocks men are 



WASHING, SHEARING AND MARKING. l79 

not compelled to pay mucli for tlie support of 
the breed association. In England this is 
done largely by subscription and liberal an- 
nual dues, here by charging 5Gc each for rec- 
ording individual sheep. The English system 
would relieve the secretaries of a vast amount 
of drudgery that seems to have accomplished 
verv insignificant results. 



CHAPTER VII. 



FLOCK HUSBANDRY IN THE WESTERN 

STATES. 

NEW MEXICO. 

The management of flocks upon the great 
ranges of the West varies considerably ac- 
cording to the climate and topography of the 
country and according to the character of the 
men engaged in the industry. Probably the 
oldest sheep industry in the United States was 
fomided in New Mexico by the early Mexican 
colonists of Spanish and Indian origin. There 
are in New Mexico vast plains ranging from 
4,000 to 8,000 feet in altitude, interspersed with 
mountains and canyons. These plains are gen- 
erally covered with a rather thick, short grass of 
considerable nutritive value. The climate is 
dry and moderately cool, especially at night. 

The days are almost uniformly sunny and 
warm. 

The native Mexican sheep found there in its 
purity is becoming more and more uncommon, 
owing to the steady introduction of Merino 
blood. There has also been introduced here 
more or less blood from the English breeds 

(180) 



FLOCK HUSBANDRY IN WESTERN STATES. 181 

but as a rule the Merino lias been found to 
cross better and to withstand the conditions 
better than the mutton breeds. 

Management on most of these Mexican 
ran'^hes is extremely simple. Native Mexican 
sheep owners often use corrals (small yards 
built of cedar or pinon posts set close in the 
ground) in which the flocks (called ^'herds'' 
throughout the West) are confined at night. 
This secures them from loss from coyotes or 
mountain lions. The corralling is, however, a 
serious injury to the sheep since they must 
travel some distance to and from the enclosure 
and what is worse must await the pleasure of 
the herder before they can go forth to graze 
in the morning. 

CHARACTER OF ^'MEXICAN SHEEP." 

The native Mexican sheep is indeed a 
'^ sorry" animal, having few characteristics 
that we are wont to associate with good form 
or charactei\ It has a thin neck and feeble 
look, a curving back, round, contracted belly, 
thin legs and rather woe-begone countenance. 
The wool is coarse and scanty, the bellies and 
legs being often bare. And yet the Mexican 
sheep is not without its peculiar virtues. 

It is fairly prolific and the lambs are hardy. 
It is a great traveler and can subsist upon 
scanty aiid dry forage. When worst comes 
to vrorst and in the lower country along the 
Rio Grande, far down in Texas and across the 
nver in old Mexico rain does "not fall and all 
herbage is dried up and turned to dust, the 



182 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

humble Mexican still subsists upon the tender 
ends of twigs, upon cactus joints, upon the 
withered grass growing between the cactus 
bunches and upon dry weeds that have blown 
by the wind across the plain. They may be- 
come very much emaciated but seldom perish. 




YEARLING OXFORD RAM. 

The Mexican ewe when mated with a good 
Merino ram produces an offspring far superior 
to herself and witli a second cross upon this 
foundation very serviceable flocks are estab- 
lished. Indeed a very great number of flocks 
throughout New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, 



FLOCK HUSBANDRY IN WESTERN STATES. 183 

Utah and Califoinia liave been bred up from a 
Mexican basis. 

After the infusion of Merino blood the use 
of some of the mutton breeds |)roduces an ad- 
mii'able himb, si)i'iglitly, a good feeder, healthy 
and rugged. Tliere will occur, however, a 
good many cases of reversion to type, when 
the Mexican character will crop out, modified, 
but not destroyed by the foreign bloods. 

^^TlIE GOOD OLD TIMES ^' IN NEW MEXICO. 

Under tlie ohl fashioned regime in New 
Mexico not much improvement of the herds 
was possibk^ There was no provision for win- 
ter feeding and there often occurred a some- 
what long period of semi-starvation. Water 
was not readily accessible and often of execra- 
ble quality, being sujiplied by shallow pools 
or lakes that became incredibly foul and dan- 
gerous to drink from. There is now a consid- 
erable number of men engaged in sheep grow- 
ing under better conditions. Near the irriga- 
ble valleys vast amounts of alfalfa are grown 
and winter feeding is practiced to some ex- 
tent. Better rams are used than formerly, the 
Rambouillet having been used to a consider- 
able extent, together with Delaines and other 
Merinos. In some ])laces Shropshire and 
even Cots wold blood has been introduced. 
Native Mexican sheep owners have in many 
instances given way to American owners and 
in other instances have themselves learned 
better methods. A peculiar industry of this 
i^egion, especially down along the Pecos river 



184 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

is tlie lambing of ewes in the alfalfa fields in 
March or earlier, and growing the lambs rap- 
idly with grain and green alfalfa for early 
marketing in May and June. 

MODERN MANAGEMENT. 

A herd may contain from 500 to 3,000 sheep. 
Perhaps 2,000 would be considered a good 
sized but workable herd in New Mexico. At 
lambing time the ewe band is divided, not 
more than 1,000 being together. Good shep- 
herds seldom use the corral at night, since its 
use is almost certain to bring a steady deterio- 
ration in a good flock and prevent the nu- 
provement of a bad one. Instead of the cor- 
ral the sheep are driven at evening time near 
to the tent of the herder and watched for a 
little time when they finally lie down in a 
compact l)ody. They are then said to be 
'^bedded down" and will remain there quietly 
until morning unless the moon happens to be 
very bright, or something comes to frighten 
them. 

It is usual to have bells upon a number of 
the sheep. The herder in his tent close at 
hand hears the jingle of the bells if the sheep 
start to move off and goes around them or 
sends his dog. Soon the habit is formed with 
great fixit^^ of ^^ bedding down" regularly 
close to their herder and they do not often try 
to stray without serious provocation. 

Very early in the morning the herd awakens 
and unless there is a stonn threatening, of 
which thev have instinctive fore knowledge, 



FLOCK HUSBANDRY IN WESTERN STATES. 187 

they will go out to graze. The shepherd, or 
"sheep herder" as he is often called, directs 
them to the one way or the other according to 
the condition of the range, and swallowing his 
rather hastily prepared breakfast sets out 
after them to see that they do not scatter too 
wide or go too far. At noon he may return to 
his tent and pre})are his midday meal and per- 
haps the flock will lie quiescent for some hours 
if feed is fairly abundant and there is shade 
of trees or rocks. 

As evening approaches he gathers them to- 
gether and follows them to his bed ground 
again and thus has closed the labor of the day. 
The work is not usually hiborious but it calls 
for faithfulness and considerable ])atience and 
to be a really first-class shepherd requires a 
deep insight into the ways of sheep and of all 
wild Nature as well. 

DISEASES OF THE EANGE. 

Sheep in this region are healthy except for 
two principal troubles, scab, which was once 
almost universal, and stomach worms or "lom- 
briz" which are occasionally destructive to 
lambs. Scab is very difficult to eradicate on 
ranches where corrals are used continuously 
and where flocks stray about and cross eacli 
other's paths and especially if they alternately 
use certain corrals. Of recent years, however, 
many herds have been made completely clean 
of scab and there is ho]^e that all may be rid 
of it in the near future. 

That scab is not a necessary adjunct of 



188 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

range sheep the writer has amply proved, hav- 
ing completely eradicated it from his own 
herds when engaged in ranching in Utah. 

Stomach worms, (Strongylus contortus) in- 
fect flocks that water in shallow pools where 
to avoid the filth the sheep and lambs wade 
out till the water comes to their bellies, de- 
positing there more germs of whatever para- 
site they may harbor. There would be no 
stomach worms in this region if sheep watered 
at clean drinking places, or at least the num- 
ber would be greatly restricted. 

MEXICAN LAMBS AS FEEDERS, 

Mexican lambs liave been favorites among 
Colorado feeders ever since they commenced 
their feeding operations in that region. They 
have found their death losses comparatively 
low from the Mexican lambs and that with a 
given amount of feed they make good gains. 
When fat they sell well because they dress 
well, and their small, light carcasses are in 
favor with local retailers of meat. They are 
doubtless often palmed off on Eastern buyers 
as '^ spring lambs." Brought to Ohio the 
writer did not find them as profitable feeders 
as lambs from Utah, Wyoming or Montana, 
making much smaller gains and shearing very 
light fleeces. 

Some of these .Mexican ewe lambs (having, 
one cross of Merino blood) were kept on an 
Ohio farm and bred to lanib. They did not 
by their performance indicate that they were 
desirable stock for Eastern conditions. The 



Flock husbandry in western states. 189 

writer thinks the sooner the half wild ''Mexi- 
can" blood is bred out of these sheep the bet- 
ter save for very hard conditions of drouth 
and thinly-grassed ranges. 

THE WANDERING HEEDS. 

In Utah, .Nevada and parts of Colorado and 
in Idaho (with also a jjart of xlrizona and 
California) a peculiar system of sheep ranch- 
ing prevails. It might be called the nomadic, 
or trailing system, for the herds spend their 
summers on the high mountain pastures, their 
springs and falls in intermediate regions and 
their winters in the low-lying parts, on the 
deserts and foothills. Some of the better 
cared-for flocks are fed during part of the. 
winter or spring on alfalfa or other hay grown 
in the valleys. 

These trailing bands of sheep are in charge 
of herders each having in his care from 2,000 
to 3,000 except during lambing time, when he 
is given a smaller number and very often has 
help in addition. We may start with them in 
spring, when their journey begins from the 
desert toward the mountains. All winter they 
have lived on desert herbage and brush and 
snow has been largely their reliance for drink. 
When that is melted and the water holes are 
dried up the sheep must come out of the des- 
ert and head toward their mountain ranges. 
Very often these ranges are a hundred miles 
away and in rarer instances they are much 
more distant. The herder moves the band 
each day by slow stages towards their destina- 



190 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

tioii, taking- care to visit eacli promising spot 
along the way where perchance food may be 
found. This foiage may be of green grass 
quick grown from the melting snows and 
genial sun, which even in March shows a fer- 
vor unknown in Eastern lands, or it may be 
the young shoots of rabbit brush, willows and 
sage with an admixture of weeds. 

The herder usually has a wagon equipped 
with a canvas cover, stove and commissary. 
In this his home he is established and with it 
he journeys in a desultory fashion, searching 
right and left for subsistence for his flock. 
There is a steadily intensifying spirit of op- 
position to the nomadic sheep men on the part 
of local settlers along streams and in the val- 
leys of these mountain states, since the herds 
eat the grass that would naturally belong to 
settlers' horses and cows, and because they 
sometimes pollute streams that must serve as 
drinking water for the settlers and their ani- 
mals. 

WATTING FOE GRASS TO COME. 

The herder can not hasten toward his cov- 
eted destination, for when by drouth he is 
driven from the desert the snow is yet cover- 
ing his summer range, hence there may be a 
trying period of journeying with occasionally 
very short feed. In fact journeying flocks not 
unfrequently camp on each other's bed 
grounds, one after the other in succession, 
sometimes to the number of half a dozen. The 
last comers find little to eat save the roots of 
the grass. 



JB'LOCit HUSBANDRY IN WESTERN STATES, 191 



This liabit of roving prevents the sheep men 
from having any very great regard for the 
preservation of the range and makes it diffi- 
cult for them to preserve it even should they 
desire so to do. In truth there are regions 
where nomadic sheep have changed a once 
well grassed country into one almost bare of 




BLACK-FACED SHEEP IN THE HILLS. 

grass and containing no forage other than 
comj^aratively worthless brush and weeds. 

Lambing is usually delayed until the flocks 
are established upon their summer range, since 
it is difficult to move ewes with young lambs 
without great loss. It is a happy moment 
when after vers" great trials and toil the flock 
reaches the high mountain x)astures, the snow 
is found to be gone and green grass abounds. 
Then there is long rest before distant journey- 



192 SHEEP FARMING Ii\" AMERICA. 

ing must begin again, the moves are of only a 
few miles each and camps may remain for 
days and sometimes for weeks without being 
moved. The weather upon these green moun- 
tain pastures is stimulating and delicious; 
there are lovely groves of aspens and cool pine 
woods interspersed with hower-decked grassy 
glades. The lambs are bom here and start 
mto vigorous life and growth, far exceeding 
that of lambs born on lower altitudes on the 
plains of New Mexico. 

From some of these mountain ranges come 
the best and fattest lambs that reach the mar- 
kets of Omaha, Kansas City and Chicago, be- 
ginning in August and continuing until cold 
weather. Idaho especially and Utah are noted 
for their fine lambs. 

THE BLOOD OF THE HEEDS. 

The basis of the flocks of this region is 
Merino but there has been added a great deal 
of mutton blood, where the ability of the 
range to produce fine lambs has been recog- 
nized. The Cotswold has worked great 
changes in Utah and some adjacent territory. 
Shropshires have been used in many places. 
Hampshires have been introduced also and 
upon good ranges and in the hands of gen- 
erous men, able to give good care and liberal 
feeding, they have proved worthy. 

THE DIVISION OF THE RANGES. 

There is at present a general move upon the 
part of sheep owners in this mountain region 
to get in some way possession of parts of their 



Flock husbandry in western so^ates. 193 

ranges. They seek ownership of the summer 
range, or of parts of the fall and spring 
ranges, and are establishing farms where for- 
age may* be cut and stored for winter use. 
There is a large body of good citizens engaged 
in the sheep industry in these regions and 
also unfortunately some of the most selfish 
and degraded of men. A nomadic sheep herd 
under the management of an ignorant, lawless 
and irresponsible man is a curse to any land 
over wbich it travels. It sheds off scab germs 
to infect other herds so unfortunate as to fol- 
low iji its trail, it pollutes streams, devastates 
young forests and destroys the range by over 
pasturing. It will indeed be a happy day for 
all this region when the land is divided up, 
owned or leased by the cattle and sheep 
owners and the era of destruction of that 
beautiful region ends and reconstruction be- 
gins again. It is a short-sighted policy of 
our National Government that permits ranges 
to be devastated and refuses leases that would 
tend to preserve them and thus enrich all the 
community. 

MONTANA, WYOMING AND THE DAKOTAS. 

These regions possess a distinct character 
and have a type of sheep husbandry of their 
own. They are characterized by very wide, 
well^ grassed plateaus or plains, somewhat 
destitute of trees or brush and sometimes de- 
void of hills, canyons or natural shelter. The 
climate is much milder than it would be in a 
similar latitude in the PJastern states and 



194 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

while very low temperatures are often reached 
in winter, some times with occasional bliz- 
zards, yet there are seldom deeji or long-lying 
snows and the abundance of grass renders it 
easy for the flocks to find subsistence. The 
grasses on these plains seem not so fattening 
as upon the mountains of Utah and Idaho, 
but are more abundant than those of regions 
to the southward and produce a fine class of 
sheep. In this region are found the larger 
types of Merinos, with often an infusion of 
Cotswold or Lincoln or Leicester blood, while 
mutton-bred rams of all types are used to 
produce market lambs. Sheep do not |)erma- 
nently injure the grasses of this region and 
indeed when grazed with judgment, not to 
overstock, the range is often benefited. In fact, 
some progressive ranchmen, of the type of 
Hon. Itobert Taylor of Wyoming make it a 
practice to pasture cattle and sheep together 
and find that both thrive. 

PARASITIC INFECTION OF THE EANGES. 

There is sometimes in this region, particu- 
larly in the Dakotas, sufficient humidity to 
make it possible for internal parasites to prop- 
agate and diffuse themselves through the 
flocks. Grievous losses from stomach worm 
are reported during bad seasons and tape 
worms have worked havoc over much of the 
region. 

These losses, however, are far less serious 
than occur in the states east of the Missouri 
river. 



H 

O 
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"^ 

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> 

O 
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O 

l-H 

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FLOCK HUSBANDRY IN WESTERN STATES. 197 
HAPPY FUTURE OF THE REGION. 

This whole region is destined to be, the 
author believes, one vast pastoral expanse, 
dotted with sheep herds, and given over very 
nearly, to the exclusion of other animals, to the 
sheep. It is the one part of the United States 
having abundant grass, admirable climate and 
soil capable of growing almost any breed of 
sheep in perfection and with little loss from 
parasitic infection. 

There is, too, the advantage of an intelli- 
gent and progressive people embarked in the 
sheep industry and they have alreaiiy shown 
by their work in suppressing scab over large 
'parts of this region what they can and will 
accomplish. 

These plains do not produce as early or as 
fat lambs as the mountains southwest of them 
but very superior feeding lambs come from 
their ranges. 

There was once small preparation made for 
winter feeding in this region. There is to- 
day a great deal of hay being put up, both of 
native and alfalfa sorts. When snow is deep 
^'snow plows'' are used, which make bare 
strips along which the flocks feed. Sometimes 
com is fed scattered on the ground. In some 
parts of this countr\^ the summer and winter 
ranges are distinct, the flocks climbing into 
the mountains during the heated season and 
relieving the range of their presence; in other 
parts the mountains are too remote and the 
sheep use near by parts of the range for both 
summer and winter grazing, 



198 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

Except on farms in the East there is no 
other part of the United States where much 
increase in numbers of sheep kept can be 
made. Here double the numbers now kept, 
may be and some day doubtless will be kept 
when the cattle men turn sheep breeders. 

MANAGEMENT OF THE EANGE KAMS. 

The ''buck herd" is a necessary institution 
upon the range, and often a troublesome prop- 
osition it is. There are usually kept about 3(' 
rams to the thousand ewes, though some grow- 
ers use a larger number. Various methods are 
adopted to keep these rams between breeding 
seasons. They are sometimes pastured in a 
fenced pasture and corralled at night to keej) 
them from coyotes. Sometimes they are 
herded where there are enough of them on a 
ranch to make a herd and he must indeed bo 
an active and careful herder who will lose 
none of them, since as fall days come on their 
instinct leads them to roam in search of fe- 
males. 

Often several ranchers will combine their 
forces and put all the rams together in one 
herd. And others will allow them to run with 
the ewes during winter and spring, separating 
them in summer when there might be danger 
of too early matings. 

Sometimes it is possible to put the rams in 
a wether herd, though wether bands are not 
nearly so common as they once were and many 
ranchers keep none at all, selling off all 



FLOCK HUSBANDRY IN WESTERN STATES. 199 

wether lambs or at most keeping them only 
till yearlings past. 

WHERE THE RAMS COME FROM. 

The source of supply of range rams is prin- 
cipally from large growers or rams situated in 
various parts of the range country and in the 
valleys of California and Utah. Eastern Ore- 
gon produces tliousands of magnificent rams 
mainly of Merino })Iood, a|)proaclii.ng the Ram- 
bouillet type or purely of that blood. Califor- 
nia sends many liigh-class Merino rams to the 
ranges. Utah and Idaho grow Merino and 
C^otswold rams by thousands with lesser num- 
bers of other mutton breeds. Wyoming grows 
Merinos, Cotswolds, Leicesters and liamp- 
shires. 

Range-bred rams are most servicealile on 
the range, having learned how to live there 
and being more muscular and hardy than East- 
ern farm-grown sheep. There is, however, 
a steady stream of the best bred sires from 
Eastern stud flocks going to- reinforce the blood 
of the mountain stud flocks. The day seems 
past when large numbers of Eastern fann- 
oTown rams will be used on connnon range 
herds since the Western rams are in fairly 
abundant su[)ply and are more efficient. 

THE BREEDING SEASON. 

On the rauiie rams are turned in usually to 
bring the lambs in late May or June. Tt is dis- 
astrous to lamb down before the herd is set- 
tled on good grass and where it may remain 



200 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

for some weeks with little driving. There is 
not the objection to late lambing on the 
range that there is on the farm, since the 
danger of parasitic infection is escaped in the 
range flock. This is principally from two 
causes, first that the soil is usually too dry 
to pennit the germs to develop upon it, and 
second that the sheep are moved often and sel- 
dom retuiii to graze over the same ground be- 
fore an interval of weeks, months or a year. 

VIGOK or EWES AND LAMBS. 

It is astonishing to see how little difficulty 
range ewes have in passing through the perils 
of lambing. There seems seldom a case of 
wrong presentation and often not one ewe is 
lost from a thousand at lambing time. 

Then the lambs seem endowed with remarka- 
ble vigor at birth and not one of a thousand but 
will get up and find his mother's maternal fount 
without aid from the shepherd. Indeed this 
is fortunate, seeing tliat he is generally remote 
from yards or fences, and to catch a range 
ewe is commonly a work of some difficulty. 

It is a lesson to the Eastern farmer to see 
the remarkable viability and vigor of these 
range-born lambs, being an illustration of 
Nature's way of management to promote vigor 
and reproduction. 

THE BUSY SHEPHERD AT LAMBING TIME. 1 

A a:ood shepherd will, however, be busy at 
lambing time, for there are many little things 
to occupy his attention then. One of the most 



FLOCK HUSBANDRY IN WESTERN STATES. 201 

essential is to observe the ewes with spoiled 
udders and those having imperfect udders, 
made so perhaps by careless shearers who cut 
ot^* the end of the teats. These lose their 
lambs and sliould be caught, examined and 
marked so plainly that they can never escape 
the e^^e of the master, when next the flock 
passes the assorting chute. 

T'HE COYOTE. 

Then there is the coyote pest. The coyote 
is a small wolf, not much larger than a big 




A SHEEP WAGON ON THE RANGE. 

fox, but having a voracious appetite for lambs. 
To combat coyotes a number of methods are 
used, and all fail if persisted in, since the coyote 
is one of the most cunning beasts of prey in the 
world. Strychnine placed in carcasses found 
dead kill a good many, but some coyotes learn 



202 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

to avoid strychnine. The watchful shepherd 
gets opportunity to shoot one now and then. 
Occasionally a coyote may be trapped. And 
grayhounds, or rather special hounds bred for 
the purpose, having the conformation of the 
grayhound with more size and better lighters, 
catch some of them. 

At lambing time, however, coyotes assemble, 
scenting a feast. Then the shepherd can not 
avoid letting his flock spread over ({uite an 
area of range, since to crowd the ewes close 
w^ould be sure tO' make many orphan lambs. 
Tt lielps to build fires about at various points, 
as though there were numerous camp fires, and 
tlie wary beasts scenting danger, keep theii' 
distance. To hang out lanterns is a good 
practice, too. To patrol the flock almost 
ceaselessly with rifle in hand, firing it now 
and then is the method most effective, and this 
is usually adopted b}^ careful shepherds. It is 
necessary at this time to have help, and two 
or three men may, if available, keep them- 
selves usefully employed about the lambing 
flock. 

'^tkimming'^ the lambs. 

Lambing lasts usually only a week or two 
on the range, since the rams are not put in till 
kite and the ewes soon come in heat and con- 
ceive. 

After the lambs have become strong they 
are earmarked, docked (unless they are to go 
to market, in which case their tails are some- 
times left long), and castrated. 



FLOCK HUSBANDRY IN WESTERN STATES. 203 

They grow very rapidly if well born on good 
range. The shepherd has now some compen- 
sation for his pains and anxieties. His duties 
are comparatively light, he has time to kee]) 
a neat camp, to Imnt a little for grouse or deer, 
and the flock itself is a source of great pleasure, 
if he is more than an indifferent hireling. In 
the evenings when the ewes have assembled, 
perhaps on the slope of some ravine, the lambs 
will disengage themselves from the flock and 
withdrawing a little way will race up and 
down in mobs, a fuzzy flood, undulating over 
the ground. Again some belligerents will 
square off and fight mock fights, butting ])y 
twos and threes until one decides that too 
rough a sport. Again there will be a game of 
leap frog, or "follow your leader,'' and strings 
of lambs will race up over banks and rocks 
and jump stiff-legged down the other side. 

After a time some old ewe, feeling a prow- 
sure within her udder, will disengage herself 
from the rest and coming to the open will 
call anxiously for her lamb. As though a 
miracle some lamb will stop, listen, cease to 
play and answering with a bleat, will come 
scampering across the ravine to her to get his 
evening meal. 

Curiously enough the ewe, though she has 
seen him a thousand times, refuses to believe 
that he is her rightful offspring until she has 
ap])lied her infallil)le test, her nose. Scenf 
tells her it is her own her darling child, and she 
tranquilly allows him to milk her dry. 



204 



SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 



SHEARING ON THE RANGE. 

Shearing on the ranges occurs at different 
seasons, according to the condition and charac- 
ter of the country. Usually in southern ranges 
it is before lambing, at railway stations where 
the wool is readily shipped away. If on the 
other hand, the ewes are shorn upon their sum- 
mer range, they may be shorn after lambing. 




LINCOLN SHEARLINGS 



The shearers are roving groups of men, as 
needs must be, possessed of iron muscles and 
great deftness of hand. A good shearer will 
average 100 sheep a day, for which he gets 
from seven to twelve cents per head. Nor 
must Eastern shearers console themselves that 
these men do exceptionally rough or careless 
work; they shear, on the average, quite as well 



FLOCK HUSBANDRY IN WESTERN STATES. 205 

as the common shearers of the Eastern states. 
Nor are their sheep as easily shorn as the gen- 
eral run of farm sheep in the East. Many a 
careful man has laid the foundation of for- 
tune by shearing sheep on Western ranges. 
An old friend of the writer now known and 
honored throughout all that mountain region 
and one of the largest sheep owners, began 
ranch life as a shearer on California ranges. 
He now owns probably 50,000 sheep of his 
own. There are now a good many plants 
where machine shears are in operation and 
their number is increasing; nevertheless there 
are many situations where the old hand shears 
will continue to be used. 

DIPPING. 

Dipping on the range should be a regular 
yearly or semi-annual practice. When it can 
be done it should follow shearing. Another 
practice is to dip when the lambs are weaned 
in the fall. The dipping is done in a rapid 
manner by means of very long tanks or swim- 
ming vats, through which the sheep are swum 
in rapid succession. A furnace adjacent, with 
boilers, heats and cooks the. dip used. Sev- 
eral thousands sheep are dipped in a day, ac- 
cording to the size of the plant. The dip most 
used is lime and sulphur, which is certainly 
when rightly compounded an efficient scab 
destroyer. 

The writer when engaged in sheep ranching 
on the hills and mesas of Utah did not use this 
dip, since it is injurious to the fleece and 
seemed not to eradicate the disease, but used in- 



206 



SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 



stead one of the dips prepared from coal tar, 
using it strong and hot, and entirely eradi- 
cated scab from his range, so that it did not 
again reappear during his occupancy of it. 
There is no doubt that scab can be entirely 
banished from the ranges if men can be edu- 
cated to it, and have instilled within them a 
living conscience that will lead them to do 
their plain duty toward themselves, their 
liocks and their neighbors. The obstacle to 




X- /'-' 




AN ILLINOIS FEEDING AND SHIPPING YARD.1 

complete scab eradication is the ignorance 
and criminal indifference of the lower class of 
sheep owners and the abettors of these crim- 
inals are often the state inspectors, who very 
often make of inspection a farce and give to 
their friends, or to others for a consideration, 
clean bills of health when scab is really wide- 
spread. To give them the benefit of a doubt, 
however, these inspectors very often would 
not be able to recognize a case of scab were 
they to see it except in the last stages. There 



FLOCK HUSBANDRY IN WESTERN STATES. 207 

is growing, however, a healthy sentiment, and 
sooner or later the neighboring ranchmen will 
themselves take it upon them to see that scab 
is eradicated from their district and compel 
the indifferent to clean their flocks in self-de- 
fense. That done a great and unnecessary ex 
pense will be saved, since it will not be neces- 
sary to dip so often, only ticks being to com- 
bat, and a heavy cloud of apprehension will be 
removed from the sheep owner's mind and the 
shepherd's as well. 

THE MALIGNED ^^ SHEEP HEEDEE.'^ 

There is in the mind of the public a deep- 
seated prejudice against the range shepherd, the 
''sheep herder," and he is often regarded as 
being an ignorant, lazy, and generally de- 
graded individual. There is doubtless' here 
and there a man of that sort engaged in herd- 
ing sheep, but in the main the herders are men 
of character and intelligence. Their work de- 
velopes within them quite diiferent characteris- 
tics from those developing in the man who 
herds cattle, the ''vaqueros" who do their 
work on horseback. 

The shepherds acquire patience, thought 
and faithfulness. They develop endurance and 
stoicism. Lacking the dash of the cowboys, 
they have greater capacity for enduring dis- 
comfort and fatigue. 

There are every year wonderful things done 
on the sheep ranges by these faithful herd- 
ers. Storms come and blizzards blow and some- 
times there is no shelter. Then the sheep can 



208 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

not be restrained but drift aimlessly before the 
blast. Then the herders forsaking their tents 
and the comfort and shelter to be found therein 
follow the sheep, striving to keep them together 
and if possible to lead them at last to a safe 
shelter, perhaps among pines or behind shelter- 
ing cliffs and hills. 

Oftentimes these storms endure for several 
days and the shepherd may find no refuge nor 
help until at last he is overcome with weariness 
and cold and lies down in the snow for rest. 
Here he is found, sometimes yet alive and more 
often frozen to death. There is hardly a winter 
that there are not a number of herders lost in 
storms and there have been single storms that 
counted their dead by scores. The writer knows 
one old man, a fine herder he is, who has been 
found buried in a snow drift beside his flock, 
miles from the camp, so frozen that he lost all 
the fingers of both hands, only one thumb re- 
maining. This old man, after the terrible ex- 
perience, calmly resumed his occupation, and 
even managed to live alone and make camp in 
his crippled condition. 

Men of foreign birth often make excellent 
herders for the range country. Germans excel, 
Portuguese are reputed good herders, Andalus- 
ians have a reputation in parts of California, a 
Chinaman has been known to become a skilled 
shepherd and Mexicans have their virtues, 
among them a dog-like fidelity, though they are 
not reputed so daring and resolute in time of 
stress as men of Northern climes. And now and 
then a lad of American stock excels. Scots are 



FLOCK HUSBANDRY IN WESTERN STATES. 209 

everywhere found among them, and ever}^- 
vvhere in the lead, having a heritage of sheep- 
keeping ancestry and tradition. 

UPS AND DOWNS OF THE BUSINESS. 

It is to be regretted that the sheep industry 
has such remarkable ups and downs. There will 
be a series of years when flocks on the ranges 
make their owners very large profits. As, for 
instance, if a thousand ewes cost the owner $3,- 
000 and thirty rams will cost maybe $300 more. 
The exjoense of keeping them will vary greatly, 
but may be as low as 60 to 75 cents per head, or, 
say, $772.50. It has been known that the thou- 
sand ewes would drop and rear a thousand 
lambs, but cutting this down to 850, they some- 
times sell for as much as $3 each on the range, 
or $2,550. Then the fleeces have sold recently 
for more than a dollar per head, or $1,030 more, 
leaving a. paper profit of $2,807.50 on an invest- 
ment of but $3,000. 

However, as there will needs be some ewes 
die and rams to be replenished, we can take off 
the $807.50 to put with the herd and still leave 
a nice dividend. 

On the other hand, when times are good and 
sheep prices high the wary operators are will- 
ing to sell, and men with moderate or small 
amounts of capital buy, giving mortgages on all 
they possess for security. Thereafter (and oft- 
times soon) things happen! Wool declines in 
price, lambs go begging, hard seasons come and 
the men find themselves often involved in abso- 
lute ruin. It is related during the last slump 



210 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

in sheep values, about 1894, in Texas a rancher 
started to market with a train load of sheep. He 
got drunk in Kansas City and the sheep went 
on without him, sold, but not for enough to pay 
the freight. He therefore received a letter from 
his conunission firm asking him to remit for the 
freight, and they in turn received a telegram 
from him saying, ''I have no money; am send- 
ing on more sheep." 

THE HOPEFUL OUTLOOK. 

The writer believes, however, that the days of 
ruinous prices for sheep are over. The capacity 
of our country to consume sheep has grown 
very enorm.ously. The mutton-eating habit, 
once formed, is retained. Mutton is indeed an 
economical meat to buy, since in chops one can 
buy small amounts more easily than in beef 
steaks; thus the high price does not so much 
count. And mutton, especially lamb mutton, is 
consumed by the well-to-do, a steadily increas- 
ing class in our country. It is hard to believe 
that there will ever again be such a Waterloo 
as the last decade of the Nineteenth Century 
brought. And yet the writer wishes to prevent 
his friends from rushing heedlessly to buy when 
prices are the highest, and to caution them from 
following the example of the Texan and giving 
their flocks away merely because they are tem- 
porarily depressed. 

A WORK TO BE DONE. 

There is a great work remaining to be done 
on our ranges that is to build up the quality 



FLOCK HUSBANDRY IN WESTERN STATES. 211 

of the flocks till tliey approach in excellence the 
quality of the flocks of New Zealand and Ar- 
gentina. The writer once in Deptford Mar- 
ket, where the live cattle and sheep sent to Lon- 
don from foreign ports are slaughtered, was 
shocked to see how much better were the 





SUFFOLK RAM. 



strangers 



sheep than those of his brethren. 
Needless to say that the good sheep brought 
much the better prices. 

To thus upbuild our range flocks needs a 
steady inflow of the best rams, mainly of Ram- 



212 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

bouillet and the larger, smoother Delaine type, 
and the crossing of their produce with rams ol 
Lincoln, Ootswold and Leicester blood. 

Such cross-breeding needs, to be a success, 
great study and attention and of course with 
liner animals comes always need for better feed 
and care, for provision of forage for winter and 
cessation of long and fruitless journeyings. 
These things will come, the great plains and 
grassy mesas and green forested mountains will 
soon be covered with flocks of far better sheep 
than they hold today, and by some sort of peace- 
able division of the ranges each rancher will 
know where he may graze and where he may 
save grass with sure expectation of feeding it 
himself in time of need. 

SHEEP ADVANCE — CATTLE BETKEAT. 

It is the opinion of the writer that the cattle 
will steadily retreat before the peaceable ad- 
vance of the sheep, since sheep are best fitted 
for this region and bring far more profit. 
There will always be room, however, for some 
cattle and they will be found to thrive along- 
side the sheep, when the day of intelligent graz- 
ing and range management has been reached. 

WINTER FEEDING OF SHEEP AND LAMBS. 

The writer does not think it worth while to 
devote much space to describing the best meth- 
ods of feeding native lambs in winter, for the 
reason that natives (those born on Eastern 
farms) ought to be fat and sold before winter 
lias set in. If they are not fat it may very like- 
ly be because they are infected with some de- 



FLOCK HUSBANDRY IN WESTERN STATES. 213 

pressing parasite, siicli as stomacli worm or 
nodular disease, and in that case are liardly 
worth fattening at all. In his own practice he 
has abandoned feeding native lambs entirely 
since his own lambs, bom upon the farm, are 
fat and sold before July and those he can buy 
give him almost certain trouble. 

It may be said, however, that if one is to 
feed native lambs he should select them if pos- 
sible with an eye to getting the good ones, those 
in health. These are easily discovered. They 
show their health by the vigor of their action, 
the quickness of their movements, the bright- 
ness of their eyes and if examined closely the 
pinkness of their skins. Those that are droop- 
ing or that show white chalky skins, signs of 
diarrhea and they have dead-looking fleeces 
are surely infected with worms and if they can 
not be discarded they should be treated before 
being put on feed. 

It is not well to turn feeding lambs out on 
pasture when they are brought home. They 
will gain little on pasture in the fall, unless it 
be some special sowed crop such as rape or 
vetches, and to turn the lambs on the grass pas- 
tures usually results in gnawing the grass to 
the ground without nutting on any gain as 
compensation. It is therefore best to put them 
directly into the feed lot and to begin feeding 
them on dry hay, or other forage. 

NECESSITY FOR DIPPING. 

Earlier in this book directions are given for 
dipping and the reasons whv. We will here re- 



214 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

peat and emphasize the fact that all sheep thai 
have been shipped on railway cars or penned 
in railway yards are very apt to be infected 
with germs of scab. If they have no' scab germs 
they almost surely have ticks on them. Ticks 
will fatten in the same shed with sheep but the 
sheep will suffer. Ticks find slow sale in the 
market place. Scab, if it breaks out during the 
feeding season, is ruinous and will entail great 
loss unless promptly suppressed. The longer 
dipping is delayed the more costly it is because 
of the greater amount of material required, be- 
cause of the greater degree of exposure when 
the weather is colder, and because the animal 
after being on feed suffers a greater shock 
and has a worse set-back than when dipped on 
its arrival at the feed yard. 

Lambs that are sent out from the larger cen- 
ters of distribution, such as Chica2ro, Omaha 
and Kansas City, are dipped under Federal su- 
pervision before thev leave the yards. This 
dipping: should preclude the necessity of fur- 
ther dipping at home unless in the case of 
very well advanced cases of scab. Such in- 
stances of diseased sheep are much less nu- 
merous than thev once were, thanks to a 
rather determined scab campaign by flock- 
owners on the ranges. The dipping at the 
Chicago yards has for several years been so 
thorough that the writer has ceased to again 
dip the lambs received from these yards. He 
feels, however, that he is runnina: considerable 
risk by this neglect, since it is only a question 
of time when carelessness or ^' graft" will 



H 

k 
O 
O 

r 
o 

Q 

O 







FLOCK HUSBANDRY IN WESTERN STATES. 217 

send out again strings of imperfectly dipped 
lambs from these very yards. This has, at 
least, been the history of the past. One 
winter some years ago the writer trusting to 
the dipping there received had the distressing 
experience of having to dip every sheep upon 
the farm in midwinter. 

It is safer then not to rely upon the dipping 
at the yards, but to dip carefully upon arrival, 
or as soon thereafter as the lambs have rested 
and recovered their strengtli. Until that time 
if the weather be good it is wise to turn the 
sheep into pasture, where they may find water 
and grass and rest sufficient to recruit them. 
Then, as soon as rested, they should be dipped 
and put at once into their permanent quarters, 
if they are to be fed in yards or sheds. 

SELECTION OF FEEDERS. 

A visit to one of our great stock yards is a 
most interesting experience. There are seen 
there such a multitude of sheep of almost every 
sort and description. There are great bands 
of fat Western wethers, noble sheep, some of 
them of an astonishing uniformity in size and 
character. They are '' strong almost as horses, " 
used all their lives to roaming over the plains 
and mountains. These may go for export, or 
to the killers. The}^ are too fat to feed and 
would cost too much. And yet they are not so 
fat as the sheep that come in winter and spring 
from the feed lots. They are just right to give 
the most profit to the killers, with enough fat 
and little waste. 

Beside them will be a band of thinner weth- 



218 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

ers, perhaps from a dried-iip range, of fairly 
good quality. They, too, will go to the killers, 
though they are almost thin enough to sell at 
a farmer's price. The next pen may show some 
ideal feeders, big and strong and active, yet in 
thin flesh. Probably it did not rain on their 
range, or they traveled too far. The killers 
pass them by and the feeder gets them at a 
cent or more off. 

In the next pen will be seen a different type 
altogether, a band of wild, scarred, thin, sharp- 
backed, weazened sheep, looking as though all 
the plagues of Egypt had struck them. They 
are the product of an ignorant and stingy own- 
er, a careless and unprofitable shepherd and a 
starved and overpastured range, together with 
a dearth of rain and snow. No one wants them 
and they sell very low indeed. Sometimes they 
are great bargains and if carefully nursed 
for a few months will lay on flesh fairly well 
and being bought so cheaply will reward well 
their feeder. There is, however, the disadvan- 
tage of having your yards filled with stuff of 
which you are ashamed till near the last of the 
feeding season. They are more likely to make 
money for their feeder than the good feeders 
because they are bought so cheaply and weigh 
so little. 

However, if there is not at home plenty of 
good clover or alfalfa hay, or if the feeder is 
not willing to buy for them wheat bran and a 
trifle of oilmeal, if they must be fattened on 
corn and cornstalks mainly it is doubtful if 
they are of the class that he should buy. Ema- 



FLOCK HUSBANDRY IN WESTERN STATES. 219 

elation calls for foods rich in protein. With 
plenty of early-cut alfalfa hay in the mow these 
thin sheep may bring profit. They are of no 
value for a short feed. They require time to 
first restore their strength and afterward to 
rebuild, or perhaps build their flesh and after- 
ward to lay on fat. 

If one can buy at a low price per pound it is 
unwise to buy the emaciated ones, seeing that 
his profit comes largely from a hoped-for ad- 
vance on the purchase cost and it costs money 
to build flesh in the feed lot. 

There is, however, another range of condi- 
tions to be considered when selecting our feed- 
ers. That is the breeding of the sheep. Here is 
a pen of very heavily fleeced wethers, or lambs. 
They will shear ver>^ heavy, but they are not 
of tiie best form. They have thin necks and 
drooping sharp shoulders and a look of meek- 
ness and depression. Shall we take them! In 
the next pen is a lot with evidence of mutton 
blood in the Merino. They are lighter fleeced, 
but stronger. As a rule the very heavily 
fleeced sheep are not the best money-makers. 
They will not eat so well nor make so good 
gains. Nature specializes, the food goes to 
flesh or it goes to fleece and oil in the wool. And 
ter a time thrown together, probably into a load 
good feeder. It is only the exceedingly heavy 
fleece that is to be avoided. 

Now to the lamb pens. The wethers have 
run very even and have required little assort- 
ing. The lambs are even also, but there is then 
a *Hair' so that the buyer for the great pack- 



220 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

ers usually reserves the riglit to discard a 10, 
20, 30, or maybe one of each lot. These are af- 
ter a time thrown together probably into a load 
of feeders. The lambs are in character about 
what the wethers were, though they have suf- 
fered more in transit and are not so strong. 
Again we see the killers bidding high for the 
tops. Then goes up a sigh as you relinquish 
them, and you look on down the line. Ah! 
Here are the beauties! They are from Merino 
mothers, evidently, and their sires are Shrop- 
shires, or maybe Lincolns or Cotswolds and 
they are small and in rather thin flesh, so there 
is a chance. They have been born late and 
their tops have been selected and sold, these 
younger ones remaining. 

If we get them we liave done well. They will 
grow and fatten admirably and be our pride 
and joy all through the feeding season. When 
fat they will command the top price. If we 
buy them we will take 350 (which fill a car) 
or maybe 700 or 1,050, and we may need to buy 
some smaller lots to make the number come out 
even. 

But hold ! Those lambs were after all priced 
pretty high, and here are some lively little fel- 
lows, not so well bred, quite, but yet giving 
evidence of good blood. They are very late and 
small, pretty thin, too, weighing less than 50 
pounds. What of them? It depends upon what 
is stored at home in the barn. If there is abun- 
dance of good alfalfa, if there are silage and 
perhaps roots, and loving care and generous 
shelter and long time, take them ! They are the 



FLOCK HUSBANDRY IN WESTERN STATES. 223 

best. But if the feeding season must be short, 
if there is little clover or alfalfa, take the other 
lot. 

And here is yet another sort. They must 
have come from a tei-rible range where grief 
has been their constant portion. They are 
miserably thin and weak and were ill bred at 
the beginning. Their one redeemijig feature is 
that they weigh little and will be sold for a 
very small price per pound. Shall we venture to 
buy them! That also depends upon the fur- 
nishings at home. Many of them may die before 
they gain enough strength to enable them to go 
on and gain. They will require a long feeding 
period. But when they are fat they will sell 
for nearly as much as the best bred lambs in 
the market. There is that peculiar side to the 
lamb trade: the light lambs of part Mexican 
type when rightly fed sell well. So if we have 
the feed, the kindness and comforts at home, 
we may venture to take even these weaklings. 
But let us beware of them if we propose to 
"rough them'^ or to try to hasten them along 
by a short period of heavy feeding. 

Here is yet another opportunity. In these 
smaller pens are a lot of thin Natives, from 
some near-by state. They are big enough but 
their lack-luster eyes and sunken wool and 
general air of discouragement speak surely of 
an internal revenue department held under the 
rule of predatory parasitic worms. If these 
lambs had been in health they would have been 
fat, in nine cases out of ten, and the killers 
would have swooped them in. Avoid them un- 



224 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

less you understand treating them and eradi- 
cating the wonns. Thin Western lambs do not 
often have these parasites because in their 
drier ranges the diseases do not lodge nor 
spread. And yet lambs from some of the more 
Eastern ranges, in the Dakotas, Nebraska and 
occasionally from Montana, come now and then 
infected. Before you buy these thin lambs 
look at their skins. If they are chalky pass 
them by. 

Here are ewes. This band of old ewes, in thin 
flesh, show evidences of fairly good breeding. 
They have a motherly look too. We tind that 
we can buy them cheaply. What can we do 
with them? 

Let us look first at their teeth. Ah, I thought 
so! A large number of them have lost their 
front teeth. This means two or three things. It 
accounts for their being sent from range to 
market. They have been culled out because they 
no longer could subsist well on the tough 
grasses and herbage of the range. It accounts 
mainly for their emaciation. And it means to 
you, ''Am I in position to take good care of 
these old ewes!" These ewes may not be too 
old to make a good recovery under favorable 
conditions; they may even drop a strong crop 
of lambs and nourish them well, but they must 
eat more costly food than ewes that have their 
teeth. 

They ought to have bran, oats, shelled com 
and early-cut, tender hay. But they are for sale, 
and at a low price. If it is early enough so that 
we can breed them to good rams we may do this, 



FLOCK HUSBANDRY IN WESTERN STATES. 225 

take them home and at once mate them with the 
best rams of Shropshires, Southdown, Hamp- 
shire, Dorset or whatever we fancy that we can 
get and then carry them along well, not forcing 
too much till after the lambs are born, and after 
that with judgment and discretion pouring into 
them all the good nourishing stuff that we can 
get them to consume. It will astonish us how 
those lambs will grow, and the beauty of them 
coming from these skinny old hags, but they 
may be soon sent off fat to market and the 
mothers will have gained all the time in flesh 
and in about two months' more feeding will be 
ready to go after their lambs. This is good 
practice and only requires the right combination 
of careful shepherd, with skill in feeding, warm, 
well ventilated barns and an assortment of feeds 
with wise generosity in carrying it out to make 
the thing pay. In fact, this thing has been done. 
100 ewes have been bought in Chicago for $175. 
They have dropped and raised 90 lambs that 
sold at about 10 to 14 weeks ' age for over $5.00 
each. The ewes sheared, under this good care, 
above 7 pounds each and the wool sold for 25c. 
Then the ewes finally fattened and weighed 112 
lbs., selling for 5c per pound. Thus the ewe that 
cost $1.75 in Chicago sold, with her wool and 
lamb, for $11.85 in late May. This was an ex- 
ceptionally favorable result, however, achieved 
by an assemblage of favoring conditions of low 
first cost, fairly good quality, good sires, wise 
and generous treatment and a booming spring 
market. Let the indifferent shepherd, or the one 
having ear corn and timothy hay, beware of 



226 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

these broken-moutlied ewes ; they will undo him 
every time. 

There is danger that these ewes may part of 
them be already with lamb to some inferior 
range ram. These lambs will not usually fatten 
off at an early age and may materially affect the 
result. 

Let us digress here to consider for a moment 
a proposition having in it great possibilities of 
profit for the feeder and offering to the rancher 
a ready means of disposing of his aging ewe 
stuff' without too much sacrifice. The rancher 
may cull out his aged ewes before they have 
reached too decrepit a condition, discarding any 
that have spoiled udders or defective teats, and 
putting them on the best and tenderest grass he 
can find. Put with them good blocky mutton 
rams as early as possible in summer. He ought 
to get a Down or Dorset ram for this purpose, 
since the long-wools do not get lambs fattening 
best at a very early age. 

Then he can sell the ewes, bred, to men who 
make a business of making winter lambs, and 
get a great deal more for them than it has cost 
him to give them this treatment. The writer 
several years ago called the attention of sheep 
growers and feeders to the possibilities of this 
practice and it has already been begun in a 
small way with the probability that the practice 
will become more common as the advantage be- 
comes known, and especially as Western sheep 
ranching settles down to a state of settled prac- 
tice of good methods. 

The age when a ewe should be discarded 



FLOCK HUSBANDRY IN WESTERN STATES. 227 

varies considerably with the breed and also 
with the district where she is kept and the 
manner of keeping. In England among the 
Dorset breeders it is the custom to take three 
or four crops of lambs to a Dorset ram, then 
to breed them to a Down (Hampshire, Shrop- 
shire or Sussex), and sell them in lamb to go 
away to men who make it a practice to buy 
these ewes, grow from them one or two crops 
of lambs and send them fat to market. In 




A SHOW OF COTSWOLDS. 



America it can hardly be said that there is 
any established system anywhere, and the 
more usual method is simply to continue to 
use the ewe so long as her teeth are good, dis- 
posing of her then for what she will bring. 
There is something to be said for this prac- 
tice, though undoubtedly when we have set- 
tled down to a good and regular system of 
management, when we have formed a habit of 



228 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

good management, we will turn off our ewes 
young enough so that they may be finished 
easily into prime mutton and will not have 
become '' shelly.'' The number of lambs that 
can be taken from a ewe varies somewhat with 
the breed. Those that mature quickly the 
sooner lose their usefulness. Merinos taking 
long time to- mature are sometimes productive 
for 16 years or more. Downs and Dorsets are 
usually past their usefulness at twelve years. 
In general it is good practice to discard ewes 
upon farms at about the age of six to eight 
years. To return to our 3^ards, there is a vast 
ness about it and a bewilderment that appalls 
the man fresh from tranquil fields where a flock 
of 500 sheep seems large. On some single days 
there will be received here as many as 25,000^ 
or even more, and in a single brief forenoon 
most of them will be sold and many of them 
dispersed, some to the killers and some to the 
dipping vat and on cars again to go out to 
country feeders. It is a confusing place to the 
countryman and he is wise to choose some 
skilled commission man to go with him and 
make his purchases, helping, too, in making 
selections. 

It is not always wise for the feeder to go in 
person to the market, though he should make it 
a point to be there once or twice a year to study 
types and results of other men if possible. 

The advantage in leaving the purchase alto- 
gether to an honest and capable commission 
man (there are such in most markets) is that 
the commission man may take advantage of 



FLOCK HUSBANDRY IN WESTERN STATES. 229 

heavy runs and depressed markets to secure 
for the feeder his supplies at the lowest price. 
Naturally when the man goes himself to the 
market place he desires to make his purchase 
and get away whether conditions seem to him 
just right or not. His impatience may there- 
fore cost him dearly. 

It is a good plan to set a price that you are 
willing to pay for the class of sheep that you 
decide to feed and carefully describing your 
wishes state the case to your commission man, 
leaving the order with him to be filled when he 
can. It may happen that you are too low and 
your bid may need to be raised, or the stuff 
may cost you less than you have expected to 
pay. 

The feeder may if he desires go in person to 
the ranges and make his selections there, bring- 
ing his purchases directl}^ home. Thus he will 
get the best and get it home fresher than did 
they lie around in stock yards la waiting pur- 
chasers. The practical disadvantage of this, 
liowever, is that on the range the buyer must 
pay the rancher's price; if he lets the sheep go 
on to market he sets the price himself. 

It is especially desirable in buying on the 
range that the ]3urchaser should take care to 
weigh at least a portion of the stuff and make 
due allowance for shrinkage in shipment, else 
he may buy very dearly without being aware. 
In advising the feeder to beware of thin Native 
feeders the writer is aware that he is preju- 
dicing his very subject and aim, the building 
up of flocks of natives in all the region east of 



230 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

the great ranges. It must be remembered, how- 
ever, that in most of this region food is so 
abundant, both of grass and grain, that almost 
any sheep in health will be fat when it goes to 
the market, and therefore snapped np eagerly 
by the killers, except those that are parasitic 
and therefore difficult to make fat. He hopes 
and believes that the day will come when this 
condition will be overcome and sheep will be 
found as healthy on farms as on ranges, but 
even then they will go fat to market instead of 
going to swell the supply of feeders. 

FEEDING OF LAMBS. 

Ijct US now take up in detail the work of 
lamb feeding, having by this time purchased 
our supply of feeders, or having grown them 
ourselves. Methods of lamb feeding vary wide- 
ly according to the district where they are fed. 
We will consider the several ways in detail. 



CHAPTER VIII 



WESTERN LAMB FEEDING. 

PEA FEEDING IN COLORADO. 

Ill the San Luis valley of Colorado a very 
curious method of fattening lambs has within 
recent years grown to' large proportions. This 
valley is very high, so high indeed that alfalfa 
does not thrive as it does elsewhere in the irri- 
gated valleys of the West. But Nature evens up 
things and here is found the natural home of 
the field, or Canadian, pea. The soil and climate 
seem admirably suited to the growth of peas. 
Indeed it is said that nowhere else in the world 
do peas thrive so well. The soil is somewhat 
alkaline, full too of raineral riches, and the 
abundant irrigation and cool mountain air 
assure a good growth and a very heavy fruit- 
ing. The methods of culture are easy and 
simple; after being drilled into the soil and 
imgated (sometimes with cultivation and 
sometimes without) they soon cover the ground 
and need no more attention. The climate is so 
dry that the crop may stand without waste 
until it is consumed. The harvesting is simple 
in the extreme. Lambs are bought and turned 
in where they remain until the crop is har- 

(231) 



232 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

vested and the lambs are fat. There is no need 
of other forage than the dried pea vines give, 
nor of other grain than the peas. Grains on 
this ration are very large and the quality of 
rnutton produced unexcelled. The growth of 
this new industry has been very rapid indeed, 
since practically the first efforts were made in 
the winter of 1901-1902, when about 3,000 lambs 
were fed, and it is said that in the winter of 
1904-1905 160,000 fat lambs left the San Luis 
and adjacent valleys of Colorado. It is prob- 
able, too, that this is the beginning of the in- 
dustry, for there are doubtless other valleys in 
Colorado high enough, cool enough, and dry 
enough to grow peas well, and so of Utah, 
Idaho and Wyoming. 

ALFALFA-FED COLOEADO LAMBS. 

The front range of the Rockies sends forth a 
number of refreshing streams, creeks and 
rivers, from the Animas river at Trinidad up 
to the Arkansas in middle Colorado and the 
forks of the Platte at Fort Coljins. Early in 
the settlement of Colorado it was learned that 
alfalfa grew wonderfully well on the plains, 
where, supplied with water by irrigation, the 
difficulty seemed to be to use the alfalfa. Fin- 
ally some man tried feeding it to sheep, then 
to lambs; grain was fed with it. A few car- 
loads of the lambs went to Eastern markets ; 
the killers tried them and pronounced them 
extraordinarily good, and the Colorado lamb 
industry was bom. 

Colorado lamb feeding has had its ups and 



w 
W 
w 
o 

73 
I— I 

o 

73 




WESTERN LAMB FEEDING. 235 

downs. In the winter of 1898-1899 the feeders 
lost nearly all the hay they put into the lambs, 
getting back only the manure and pay for the 
com bought in Nebraska. In other years they 
have made very large profits. At intervals they 
have tried feeding other things^ — ^calves, weth- 
ers, ewes to lamb — in the feed lot. The wethers 
and calves are mostly eliminated now and 
lambs are fed on an ever-increasing scale. It 
is a settled industry, not without its risks yet 
as; certain of profit as any feeding business can 
well be. 

Colorado lambs are the product of Colorado 
alfalfa and Kansas and Nebraska corn. There 
is sometimes a little locally-grown wheat or 
barley fed, when it is cheap enough, but shelled 
com and alfalfa form probably 95 per cent of 
the foods fed. 

In early days the Colorado feeders depended 
almost altogether upon the lambs of New Mex- 
ico and southern Colorado for a supply of 
feeders. The reputation of Fort Collins' lambs 
was made first with these Mexicans. In more 
recent years lambs have come there from other 
regions, notably from Utah and Wyoming. The 
process of feeding lambs in Colorado is admir- 
ably simple. There are yards built of six-inch 
boards, with cracks between them wide enough 
to permit the lambs to thrust their heads in 
and eat between them. Hay is then piled along 
these fences right on the ground (which is usu- 
ally dry in that sunny clime) and the lambs eat 
it standing with their necks through the fence. 
Two or three times a day men go along and 



236 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

throw the hay up afresh. The hay is drawn 
from great ricks standing* in the alfalfa mea- 
dows. Little of it is ever put in barns, which 
hardly exist in the sense that they are used in 
the East. 

Grain is fed in flat-bottomed troughs in the 
yards. There is often an arrangement of yards 
so that one may be used as feeding yard for 
two or more pens. In that way the grain may 
be put in before the sheep are admitted. When 
the gates are opened they come in with a rush. 

When first the lambs are received they are 
carefully dipped and then given, usually, a pre- 
paratory course of alfalfa feeding before hav- 
ing any grain. When they are, introduced to 
com it is fed in very small amounts, slowly and 
steadily increased until finally they are eating 
about all they desire. That amount will be 
between two and three bushels per day to the 
hundred head. It is found best to feed corn 
in regular rations two or three times a day 
rather than to use ^^self feeders,'' such as are 
used in the Northwest for feeding light screen- 
ings. These self feeders, by the way, are merely 
bins having troughs at the lower edges on each 
side, with narrow openings through which the 
screenings descend. 

Very few of the Colorado feed yards have 
sheds attached to shelter the lambs. Little rain 
falls and the snow is light and dry. Wind- 
breaks are found desirable. Water is pumped 
by wind power and supplied abundantly in 
troughs, which are kept clean. 

Most of the Colorado lambs are sent to mar- 



WESTERN LAMB FEEDING. 237 

ket witli their fleeces on. The gains secured 
are excellent, lambs weighing 55 lbs. when put 
on feed often weighing 85 lbs. when ripe, and 
better gains are sometimes secured. They 
come to the markets of Kansas City, Omaha 
and Chicago in solid train loads, and owing to 
their good quality and even ripeness they sell 
at the top of the market. 

There seems a distinct quality of goodness 
diffused through an alfalfa-fed lamb, and it is 
difficult to make as good on any other ration. 
The healthfulness of the diet is attested by the 
very great evenness of lots of alfalfa-fed lambs, 
though this is in part accounted for by the 
regularity and moderation of the feeding. 

There are other alfalfa feeding districts in 
Kansas and Nebraska where the business is 
carried on very much as in Colorado, having 
almost as good weather though not usually as 
good alfalfa. This is owing to the greater lia- 
bility of rain falling on Nebraska and Kansas 
alfalfa and to the careless methods of hay- 
makers caused in part by scarcity of labor. 
Corn is plentiful in these Eastern yards and is 
sometimes fed with greater freedom than in 
Colorado, though without corresponding in- 
crease in gain. The truth is that a lamb can 
not be forced as a pig can by feeding an. excess 
of grain; he must make a large part of his 
growth from coarse forage and over feeding 
with grain is a dangerous proposition. 

Then there are regions where men attempt 
to fatten lambs with wild prairie hay or sor- 
ghum, with corn. Large, well-developed lambs 



288 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

will finisli fairly well on such rations, tliougli at 
considerably greater cost than when alfalfa is 
fed. 

Prof. E. A. Burnett of the Nebraska Experi- 
ment Station lias shown that, comparing alfalfa 
hay and prairie hay with corn, the alfalfarfed 
lambs made 52 per cent greater gains than the 
prairie hay-fed lambs. The addition of 16 per 




RACKS FOR FEEDING GRAIN. 

Photo from Wilcox, 1902 Year Book, Bureau Animal Indus., U. S. Dept. Agr 

cent of oilmeal to the grain ration of the prai- 
rie hay-fed lambs increased their gain 26 per 
cent. 

The writer has often demonstrated in his own 
practice that lambs can not be fed with much 
profit without a large amount of protein in the 



WESTERN LAMB FEEDING. 



239 



ration, and alfalfa or clover is the best and 
cheapest carrier of available protein. 

Jn Nebraska and elsewhere lambs are quite 
frequently turned directly into fields of stand- 
ing corn and permitted to do their own har- 
vesting. Sometimes rape is sown in the com 
at time of last cultivation to add to their sup- 
ply of forage. Two to four pounds per acre of 




BOX RACK FOR FEEDING ALFALFA. 

From Bui. 31, Bureau Plant Industry, U. S. Dept.' of Agr. 

rape seed are sufficient. It is better to let this 
last cultivation be fairly early so as to give the 
rape a start. Should the season prove showery 
the rape will come on and add greatly to the 
value of the feed. 



240 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

There are certain points to be observed in 
pasturing down corn with lambs. It is not a 
practice adapted to feeding very thin, light 
lambs, since they require too long a feeding 
season. It is not a good practice in a wet 
region, or on a soil readily tramped into mud 
and damaged thereby. Once the lambs are 
accustomed to the corn they should not be taken 
away from it else they will on return overeat 
and die in consequence. Salt should be before 
them at all times. 

The writer is of the opinion that the one 
valuable feature of this practice is the cheap- 
ness of its execution. There is certainly some 
waste, unless pigs follow the lambs, and in some 
instances at least there is a high death rate 
owing to the impossibility of limiting the 
amount of corn eaten. However, as a usual 
thing the lambs learn slowly to eat the corn, 
finding it hard to shell, and do not founder. 

Mature sheep are sometimes turned into the 
cornfields to glean their own harvest. There 
is probably more danger of founder in old 
sheep than in lambs, since they the more read- 
ily begin to eat the ears. It may be said here 
that it is entirely unsafe to turn Native sheep 
in the cornfields, since they are more sophisti- 
cated than their Western kindred and take the 
more readily to the com. 

In conclusion it may be said that the Western 
feeders have very great advantages in their 
cheap and abundant forage and grain and their 
mild, sunny climate. They achieve success by 
close attention to details; the lambs are fed 



WESTERN LAMB FEEDING. 241 

with very great regularity as to time and 
amount. One man will feed 2,500 or more, so 
the labor cost is light. 

fTheir disadvantage is in their remoteness 
from market, entailing higher freights, and in 
the speculative character of the Western men 
which leads many of them to jump from one 
industry to another, feeding few lambs one 
year and very many the next, jumping often 
just at the right time to fail to alight on their 
feet. It is a curious fact that in Nebraska and 
Kansas few farmers feed their own grain and 
hay, preferring to sell it to great operators who 
feed in central plants many thousands of sheep 
and lambs. Thus is the manure lost to the 
farms that will some day need it, and moun- 
tains of richness are heaped up outside of feed- 
ing corrals to prove an embarrassment to the 
owner. This system is wrong and invites dis- 
aster. The man who produces the feed should 
feed it at home. A man can afford to devote 
his time to 500 sheep or lambs in winter; thus 
he has left on the farm most of the fertility 
taken from it in crops and can readily return 
it to his fields. Feeding his own crop he runs 
small risk of loss in his operations. 

FEEDING MILL SCREENINGS. 

Minnesota is the great state for feeding 
screenings. These screenings come from the 
great mills along the Mississippi and elsewhere. 
Tliey contain a little shrunken wheat, a good 
deal of weed seed, largely of pigeon grass, and 
bits of straw and trash. There are many thou- 



242 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

sands of tons of screenings available every 
year. Most of this material is used by the large 
operators, who feed from a few to many thou- 
sands. They generally use sheds provided with 
self-feeding bins holding many bushels of 
screenings. The ^ ^ management ^ ' of one of 
their plants is admirably simple; the lambs 
are bought, usually of a fairly good size and 
quality, dipped and turned into the sheds, 
where they remain until fat. Usually no hay 
is fed or required, the bulky nature of the 
screenings rendering them all sufficient for dis- 
tending the lamb properly. 

At one time large profits ensued from feed- 
ing lambs on screenings. The millers, curious- 
ly enough, became aware of this fact and began 
steadily to raise the price of screenings. As 
lamb prices advanced so did screenings, till at 
this writing the margin is very small and a 
bad year would wipe it out altogether. 

SHEEP FEEDING IN THE CORN-BELT. 

In the corn-belt proper the conditions for 
sheep feeding are good so far as abundance of 
food is concerned. Com is a staple and must 
find market. Hay is readily grown, and late 
experience has shown that wherever there is 
limestone soil, or sweet and fertile soil, alfalfa 
may be grown. Eed clover is usually easily 
grown. Thus there is a ready source of food 
for sheep. 

The climate is another matter. Sheep want 
dry footing and dry coats. They can not en- 
dure our muddy yards and dripping skies. 



WESTERN LAMB FEEDING. 



243 



Therefore before we attempt to feed lambs we 
must provide an artificial climate. This is 
done with shingles to turn off the wet. Mature 
sheep are very often fattened altogether in 
open yards and Western Merinos have fleeces 




t^ ^ ^ ^ /^ O 

CROSS-SECTION OF MODEL SHEEP BARN, SHOWING FRAME. 

that turn rain fairly well, but lambs in the 
exposure do not thrive and it is folly to 
attempt feeding them east of the Missouri river 



244 



SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 



without some shelter from wet. North of Illi- 
nois, however, where rains are infrequent and 
snows light and dry, sheds are sometimes dis- 
pensed with, but that is really outside the corn- 
belt. 

The character of the barn or shed used is 
not essential. It may be a simple roof open 
on two or three sides, to which hay will be 
hauled on wagons from ricks. The writer has 



A A 



WT 



f=f 



Q 



O 



SIDE VIEW OF MODEL SHEEP BARN, SHOWING DOORS 



such a feeding plant and uses it to good ad- 
vantage. It may better be a barn of two stories, 
the upper one stored with alfalfa or clover hay. 
In the lower or ground story the lambs are fed. 
Their part should be eight feet high in the 
clear, all in one large room, which may be 
divided as desired by use of racks or movable 
panels. 



WESTERN LAMB FEEDING. 245 

Through this room there should be oppor- 
tunity to drive transversely through nearly or 
quite every bent or space between posts. To 
accomplish this doors must constitute the 
whole length, preferably on the north and 
south sides of the building, which may well 
stand east and west. 

Thus the two sides will be composed entirely 
of doors so far as the lower story is concerned. 
Doors cost little more than ordinary siding to 
construct. These doors should be divided 
transversely at a height of about four feet. 
The lower half will swing from the post just 
as a gate swings, while the upper half will be 
hinged at the upper side, and raise up out- 
wardly. Thus the lower part of the door may 
remain closed to restrain the sheep, while the 
upper half is lifted to^ admit air and light. 
And air may be admitted and storms kept out, 
the outAvard swing of the upper door throwing 
drip of rain away. 

These upper doors will in mild weather be 
raised high and left up. In time of storm or 
extreme cold they may be closed on one side 
or the other. 

An abundance of fresh air is absolutely 
necessary to the lamb. He will not thrive or 
fatten without it. He will thrive better in the 
open field than in the close, foul-smelling, un- 
ventilated bam. 

Nor does it matter much after being once on 
feed whether the lamb barn is warm or cold. 
In truth the lambs will thrive better to have it 
moderately cold. It is not necessary or best to 



246 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

have it warm enough so that water will not 
freeze within. If the user is uncertain whether 
he wiJl rememher to open these upper doors he 
had better not hang them at all, but leave the 
spac^ open instead. The cold and snow that 
will blow in will do less injury to the fattening 
lambs than the deprivation of air would do. 

The bam should have no floor save the nat- 
ural earth. Water troughs of concrete are best 
and they may be provided to be half within and 
half outside of the bam, on the sunny side. 
These tanks may be of large size, thus obviat- 
ing the necessity of storage tanks, say 10x12 
feet and about 18 inches deep. It is of no use to 
make a lamb 's drinking trough very deep, and 
in fact there is danger that they may drown in 
a deep tank, since they will sometimes jump 
within it. 

The amount of room needed in a feeding 
bam is about 5 square feet to a lamb aside 
from the racks. In practice one will need about 
8 square feet gross, which will give him room 
for his racks. To feed, then, a carload or 350 
lambs, he needs a bam about 36x72 feet. Some 
feeders crowd the lambs more than that, but 
they will not thrive as they ought nor ripen 
evenly unless all have room so that they may 
eat at the same time. 

The next thing is the feed rack. Various 
types are in use and all have some good quali- 
ties. After much experience with various 
types the writer finds this form best (see 
illustration). It is made of two 1x6'^ boards 
spaced 24 inches apart, with ends and a bet- 



WESTERN LAMB FEP^DING. 



247 



torn of matclied pine flooring. This makes a 
shallow box or feed through. At the corners are 
legs of 2x2 inch stuff, 40 inches high. The 
vertical slats are of i/2-inch stuff 3 inches wide 
and are spaced 6% inches apart. The top of 
the box should be about 12 inches high. In 
this rack may be fed any sort of grain or for- 
age. The wide openings betw^een the slats per- 
mit sheep to thrust their heads clear in and 
there they will stand quietly eating until they 
have consumed the ration with little waste, 
whereas if the vertical slats are placed close 



1X6-26' 



I X 6 - 12 



TWO VIEWS OF FEED-RACK. 



together the lambs will pull the hay out, drop- 
ping it beneath their feet. This is a cheap form 
of rack, durable, easily made and as eifective 
as any. The lengih should be to fit well with 
the type of bam used, so that rows of these 
racks will, when required, make divisions or 
fit between the posts of the basement. 

Now, with the feed racks in place, with 
water, and the mow above stored with clover 
or alfalfa hay, which should have been early 
cut, we are ready for the lambs. First a word 
about the yard. It should liave in it about a 
half greater capacity than the roof covers, not 



248 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

more, and if it can be sloping all the better. It 
should be well graveled with rather coarse 
gravel, spread smooth. If it can be concreted 
all the better, since it will then be very easily 
kept clean. 

The reason for having a small yard is so that 
it may the more readily be kept dry and clean, 
and because in a large yard there is too much 
waste of manure. Lambs in the fattening pen 
do not need exercise and are the better not to 
have it. 

A word, too, about hay. With timothy hay 
in the mow no attempt should be made to fat- 
ten lambs. Oat straw is as good, or as bad. 
Bright shredded com stover is a little better, 
and when fed in connection with abundant 
wheat bran and a little oilmeal it will serve 
very well. Without this extra supply of pro- 
tein shredded com stover will not profitably 
feed lambs. 

Now let us take the lambs home. They come 
from the cars half famished, though there are 
seldom any dead ones among them. What a 
sight it is to see them devouring the grass 
along the roadside as they go from the railway 
to the farm! It is impossible to hurry them, 
nor should one attempt it; let them take their 
time. When they reach the bam we will turn 
them first into some grass pasture where there 
is water and there they may rest for two days, 
supposing it to be yet fair and dry weather. 
Then they must be dipped, unless we are ready 
to accept the dipping at the yards. And at once 
they go to their yards and are initiated info 



WESTERN LAMB FEEDING. 249 

the mysteries of bam life. We will put about 
500 in a pen, or what the bam holds. The 
writer feeds 700 in one barn, which seems not 
to be too many for all to thrive. There must 
be racks enough so that the lambs may find 
places to eat at the same time. 

We fill the racks moderately full of alfalfa 
hay and watch the lambs eat it. At first they 
are timid about going into the barn, but soon 
they find their way about and learn where the 
food is. And then how they do eat! We will 
feed them twice a day, at the same time each 
day, and let them rest. The water we must 
watch, that it is kept pure enough for man to 
drink and always in supply. Salt we will give 
at first by dissolving it in water and sprinkling 
it over the hay; it may be put on the coarse 
stems that they leave. After doing this for a 
few days we will find their appetite for salt 
satisfied ; then we will fill a box with salt in one 
corner of the bam and let them have access to 
it at their own will. But if we could take time 
and trouble to put brine on their hay all 
through the feeding season that would be the 
better way, making them eat the coarser parts 
with relish and avoiding all danger from get- 
ting too much salt. There is, however, little 
danger of that if the lambs are first carefully 
introduced to it until their appetite is ap- 
peased, then given access to it at all times. On 
Woodland Farm it is the custom to roll salt 
barrels into the barn and saw out two or three 
staves, letting the sheep consume it as their 
appetite indicates they should. But when the 



250 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

writer fed his lambs in person he preferred 
the brining method. 

We will feed no grain at all for the first two 
weeks, unless the lambs chance to be unusnally 
vigorous and therefore able to tal^e it sooner. 
It is wise to let the lambs get their strength 
before attempting to feed them grain, to which 
they are all unaccustomed. 

In some cases the lambs will be so weak 
when they have found their journey's end that 
it will be wise to strengthen them by feeding a 
little wheat bran in connection with the clover 
or alfalfa hay. There is hardly anything more 
readily digested and strengthening than wheat 
bran and it seems especially suited to the needs 
of the lamb. In truth, the one reason why the 
writer is not using it and advocating it is its 
heavy cost, now that the dairymen have learned 
that they must have it. 

In former years, before they had much alfalfa 
hay and when bran was far cheaper than now, 
the writer and his brothers have fed many tons 
of it to lambs with very gratifying results. 
They made it profitable to feed it, though later 
when they had abandoned it for alfalfa hay 
produced on their own farm, the profits of 
lamb feeding were greatly increased. 

The cost of growing lamb mutton in the days 
when timothy hay, oat straw and shredded 
com stover were used in connection with wheat 
bran and oilmeal formed the ration, with com, 
was about $6.25 per hundred pounds. After- 
ward, when the only feeds fed were alfalfa hav 



WESTERN LAMB FEEDING. 251 

and ear com, the cost dropped to $3.50 per 
hundred. 

There are troubles that come to weak West- 
em lambs upon their first introduction to the 
Eastern feed lot. Sometimes they develop sore 
mouths in a very contagious form. The rem- 
edy is to rub ofp the scabs with a corn cob and 
cover the sore places with a little undiluted coal 
tar sheep dip. This remedies the disorder in 
short order. It is wise to take it in hand early. 

Sometimes, if the yards are a bit muddy, sore 
feet develop. These ought to be promptly 
treated, either with blue vitriol or butyr of 
antimony and the yard made dry. Air-slaked, 
dry lime scattered where they will get it on 
their feet will help. 

Now we have the lambs used to their new 
home and fed up on alfalfa until they are 
strong again ; we are ready to introduce them 
to grain feeding. It is a good practice to turn 
them out of doors while we put in feed for 
them, leaving them out until the racks are all 
filled. If oats are plentiful and cheap enough 
we can give the first grain food of oats, mixed 
with bran. There is nothing better than this. 
Scatter the grain very thinly along the bottoms 
of the racks, having first cleaned them out well. 
A quart to a rack will be an abundance, less 
will be better. 

Put the hay in after the grain, loosely. Be 
careful with nice bright early-cut clover and 
alfalfa not to feed too much; they will waste it. 
They may as well eat it up almost clean. 

Let the lambs come in. Throw open several 



252 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

wide doors at one time so that they will not 
crowd. Little by little they will learn the taste 
of the grain. Do not increase the amount fed 
until you feel certain that most of them are 
seeking it. Then let your increase be very 
gradual. 

Corn, in the corn-belt, must be the main part 
of the fattening ration. Now to introduce that. 
Take ear com, if it is at hand, and chop the 
ears up with a hatchet into nubbins about an 
inch long. Strew a few of these nubbins in 
ea<3h rack. Next feeding time strew in a few 
more. Increase very, very slowly as they learn 
to eat the corn, till you are giving them several 
ears to a rack. Cut the bits longer and longer, 
till at last you are merely making two pieces 
of an ear. Finally stop breaking ears at all, 
and feed them whole. 

Be about forty-five days in introducing them 
to what is practically a **full feed'' of com. 
And then do not give them all they want, but 
give them nearly all. If when on ^^full feed" 
they are eating as much as they desire within 
three or four grains you have done well. Be 
sure they clean it all up at every feed and 
come eagerly for more at the next feeding time. 

Now when they have gotten well to eating 
com you may as well drop the bran and oats, 
merely because of the expense of feeding them, 
since oats are usually dear. If they are cheap 
enough continue to feed them, and so of barley, 
in connection with corn, they form an admir- 
able ration. If a portion of the hay must be 
prairie hay, oat hay or timothy, in fact any 



I— I 

TO Q 

■' ^ 

H 

o 




WESTERN_I.AMB FEEDING/ 255 

grass not a clover, you can not discard bran, 
since there is too little protein in the grasses 
to make the lambs grow. They need to make a 
lot of flesh and bone, too, besides the fat. If 
yon have them to spare feed a small amount 
of soy beans in connection with com. Soys 
are rich in protein, some varieties having above 
35 per cent. And the soy straw, if it has not 
been wet, is relished though too coarse to be 
eaten clean. Oilmeal in connection with bran, 
where grasses or corn stover form the hay, 
works admirably. 

There is most clean profit, however, in feed- 
ing the simple ration of alfalfa hay and ear 
com and nothing else, unless com silage, and 
nothing will make better or more marketable 
lambs. 

Once on full feed the programme should be 
an unvarying one. At some regular time in the 
morning, not too early, say half an hour after 
sunrise, the lambs should have their morning 
feed. The water should be looked after and 
the lambs allowed peacefully to consume their 
allowance. Shortly after noon they will lie 
down to rest and sleep. Do not ever disturb 
them; assimilation takes place best when they 
are asleep. Try to feed hay with judgment, so 
that they eat it nearly all and yet have enough. 

At about four in the aftemoon begin feeding 
again. Later will serve, so you observe the 
same time each day. Feed just as you did in 
the morning. 

One hundred lambs will eat about 21/2 bush- 
els of corn daily when on full feed, unless they 



256 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

are very small lambs. A thousand lambs will 
eat more than a ton of hay daily. It will take 
about 2% bushels of com to fatten a lamb and 
12 to 20 tons of hay to the hundred lambs, de- 
pending on how long they are kept. 

Soon the stems of hay will accumulate in the 
bam and make a good bed. The com should be 
cut and the stalks fed in the open yard, which 
will thus be kept dry and clean. The blades of 
the com will be pulled off and eaten and the 
hay thus helped out. 

Soon the manure spreader must be started 
taking out the accumulating manure from the 
shed. Every day a few loads may be hauled 
away and spread on the frozen ground; thus 
there is avoided the accumulation of a vast 
amount of manure to be cleared away at one 
time in spring when every sort of work is 
crowding. 

Late in March the lambs may be shorn, if 
they have not already gone to market, and the 
feeding continued for a little time thereafter. 
When they are ripe they should go to market, 
since they will begin to die shortly afterward, 
not from disease but from disorders favored by 
too plethoric a condition. 

With small lambs it requires at least 120 
days to ripen. With larger and more fleshy 
lambs less time is required. With very small 
lambs in thin flesh 180 days are none too many 
to induce ripeness. The latter part of the feed- 
ing period gives the most profit, since gains are 
better than at the beginning when the lambs 
are unused to feed. 



WESTERN LAMB FPJEDING. 257 

It is cheaper to ship to market the lambs 
clipped, since many more can ride in a car and 
the freight is no more. 

When the lambs are uneven in size it may be 
that some will ripen before the rest. In this 
case a carload may often be sent on and the 
rest allowed to ripen further. •. 

The writer has sometimes made lambs fed in 
this manner gain nearly 100 per cent in weight. 
It is a pleasant business and in the long run 
profitable. Sometimes a year will come when 
the price of feeders is too high in proportion 
to the selling price of lambs and one must 
figure on the value of the manure to find his 
profit. 

In recent years the writer has varied the 
treatment outlined by feeding com silage in 
connection with ear corn and alfalfa hay. This 
silage is made from well matured com, so that 
it makes a sweet silage, containing little acid 
and having in it no mould. Lambs eat this 
greedily and seem to grow much more rapidly 
than when it is withheld. About 2% to 3 
pounds of silage makes a ration for a day to a 
lamb. The writer believes this cheapens the 
ration materially and perhaps the mutton is 
better; he thinks it is and has had no difficulty 
in securing the top price for his alfalfa-silage- 
com-fed lambs. When com is made into silage 
after it is well matured there is of course a 
very large proportion of grain thereon and it 
is tender and succulent and much relished by 
the lambs. The small amount of acid in the 
silage is lactic acid, promotive of digestion. 



258 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

Silage has been fed to breeding ewes with 
excellent results when it was of good quality 
and fed judiciously. When it has been acid, or 
when fed in immoderate amounts, disaster has 
followed its use. 

In some instances that have come under the 
writer's observation great losses have come 
from attempting to feed silage exclusively to 
breeding ewes. They throve for a time, then 
went swiftly to ruin, much of it irretrievable. 
IjOss has also come from feeding acid silage. 

Silos should not be built with cemented, 
water-tight floor. On such a floor the silage 
becomes very acid and trouble follows when it 
is fed to sheep. The natural earth makes the 
best floor of a silo. 

Never with sheep should silage form more 
than half the ration. If this rule is observed 
and the silage is made from well matured com, 
jjlanted no thicker than for the regular crop, it 
is believed that none but good results will ever 
follow its use. 

Lambs will not consume quite all the coarser 
parts of the silage. These must be thrown 
under foot or cleaned out and fed to cows. The 
writer has seen great loss from feeding the 
refused portions of silage fed to horses. In one 
instance where quite a heap of it had accumu- 
lated in the barnyard eleven horses and mules 
ate of it. Eleven of them died. There is evi- 
dently some principle developed in silage after 
it has been exposed to the air, perhaps, that is 
most unfavorable to horses. They die with 
symptoms resembling spinal meningitis. There 



WESTERN T.AMB FEEDING. 259 

will be a death loss among feeding lambs no 
matter how carefully they are fed. Care will 
greatly reduce this loss, however. The writer 
has had as low as 2 per cent and as high as 8 
per cent. If no more than 4 per cent of loss is 
sustained no one need shed tears. 

Attention to regularity in feeding, care that 
nO' doors or gates are left open to admit lambs 
to feed bins, and always feeding well under the 
gauge of the appetite will usually keep the 
death loss very low. With Western lambs 
there is sometimes danger of their jumping into 
water tanks if they have access thereto. The 
feeder should be careful that no sudden fright 
causes them to stampede in the bam and pile 
up, which may smother a number. 

There is seldom any good accomplished by 
treating with medicine sick lambs in the feed 
lot, unless for stomach worms. These should 
be cleaned out before the feeding begins. The 
writer has probably lost his full share of lam.bs 
and has tried various remedial treatments, but 
is not aware that he ever helped one. Death, 
in fact, usually comes from some inflammation 
of the intestinal tract, caused by engorgement 
of rich food, and medicine only aggravates the 
trouble. 

There will occasionally be loss from gid, or 
turnsick, which is caused by a bladder worm 
parasite in the brain. There is no practical 
remedy for that, though the lamb when first 
obsei^ved will make good mutton. 

With regular, rational treatment the lambs 
will keep in health and when occasionally one 



260 



SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 



dies the owner must console himself by think- 
ing of the 99 well ones, meantime taking off 
the pelt, salting it well and feeding the fresh 
carcass to his pigs or chickens. 

The writer does not believe it necessary for 
lambs to be out in their yards during day or 
night, so the barn or shed is as thoroughly 




SHEEP WAGONS. 
Photo from Wilcox. An. Report B. A. I. 1902, U. S. Dept. of Agr. 

aired as he has directed. When they are con- 
fined their urine is saved and the value of the 
manure greatly increased. Rich green fields 
spring up as by magic about the lamb feeding 
plant and when off years come and little direct 
money profit is seen the feeder can console him- 
self if he has husbanded wisely his stores of 



WESTERN LAMB FEEDING. 261 

manure by seeing the com reach toward heaven 
and flaunting its banners of deepest, darkest 
green, while following the corn are lush mea- 
dows of alfalfa or clover. 

When lambs are fed long, until after green 
grass comes in spring, it is a temptation to 
turn them out to graze for a time. This is a 
mistaken practice, sure to result in great loss. 
The lambs will not continue to gain on grass, 
even though fed their grain as usual, at least 
there will be a period of reaction when tbey 
will actually lose flesh, though if the practice 
be continued long enough they will gain it back 
again. It is most profitable to send them to the 
market right from their dry lot. 

Sometimes, however, lamljs are bought in the 
spring with the expectation of feeding them off 
on grass, with corn. This may prove a satis- 
factory enterprise if it is carefully managed. 
The troughs should be placed in a yard or tem- 
porary corral in the pasture and when grain is 
put in them the entire flock must be called or 
driven within and fastened there for a sufficient 
time for them to consume their ration. They 
may then be loosened and permitted to roam 
where they will until the next feeding time 
arrives. 

The feeder must use care that every lamb 
comes up every time. Also he will have cases 
of indigestion and founder; many wiJl be ''off 
their feed. '^ 

Sometimes self-feeders are used on pasture. 
They seldom result well, owing to the essen- 
tially short memoTy and weak original impulse 



262 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

of the lamb. He will not leave his fellows to 
go for feed when he is hungry, and when he 
does reach the feeder he is apt to gorge him- 
self, thereafter declining to eat at all. 

USE OF SELF-FEEDEES. 

The writer has used self-feeders in past years 
in his feeding barns and discarded them en- 
tirely. Various tests have shown that not only 
is the death loss much heavier where self-feed- 
ers are used for com but the cost of gains is 
also much greater. If bran is fed it may be fed 
in a self-feeder, though of course this requires 
the use of considerable bran, and screenings 
are well enough fed in that manner, but for 
corn, barley or wheat the troughs and regular 
allowance are safer and better. 

FEEDING BEET PULP. 

Nearness to sugar factories gives oppor- 
tunity to utilize the waste product called beet 
pulp. The pulp is an excellent food but con- 
tains 90 per cent of water. Therefore, like 
silage, it is not well to feed it without dry 
grain being added to the ration, as well as dry 
forage. A ton of pulp contains about the same 
feeding value as 200 lbs. of corn. This would 
indicate what the farmer can afford to pay 
for pulp, a very small amount indeed when he 
must count the cost of hauling and feeding. 
It is douhtless a healthful addition to the ration 
but experiments show that pulp alone with 
alfalfa hay does not make as good lamhs as 
com and alfalfa. 



WESTERN LAMB FEEDING. 265 

There is little bone material in beet pulp, 
therefore lambs fed on it are said to suffer that 
lack. It would seem, however, that alfalfa 
would make good this deficiency. The prac 
tical objection to feeding beet pulp in cold 
weather is its freezing, or its liability to make 
the yards damp. 

The quality of meat from these pulp-fed 
lambs is very good, though they do not stand 
shipment so well as the corn-fed lambs. 

PEAS FOR LAMBS. 

In some regions where the Canada field peas 
thrive, or near the factories where ^' split peas" 
are prepared, peas or pea refuse is available for 
lamb feeding. There is nothing better. Lambs 
grow, thrive and fatten admirably on this food. 
With peas for the grain ration it is not so 
material that alfalfa be fed, since peas are ex- 
ceedingly rich in protein. 

CONCLUSION : THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MATTER. 

The writer thinks it unnecessary to crave 
pardon for thus devoting so many pages to the 
description of the lamb feeding industry, based 
on Western lambs, corn and alfalfa. 

It is easy to see from the immensity of the 
ranges and the constant supply of lambs coming 
from them, together with the great and ever- 
increasing demand for lamb mutton in the 
United States, that this industry is one not 
destined to soon diminish in importance. Old 
sheep are fed in relatively decreasing numbers 
and the demand for strictly ^^baby lambs" is 
absorbing a greater and greater proportion of 



266 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

the farm-grown lambs. Lamb feeding as a 
speculation may result disastrously, indeed is 
certain to do so at times when feeders are 
bought dear, feeds are high in price and lambs 
sell cheaply in spring, but the farmer who fits 
himself for the business and feeds with care 
and steadiness year by year will find his profits 
encouraging and his farm increasing steadily in 
productiveness. The work is such that farm 
labor finds employment the year 'round, thus 
good men are attracted to lamb-feeding farms. 

FEEDING OF OLDEK SHEEP. 

After the lamb comes the yearling in point 
of merit as a feeder. Very often the yearling 
was a light lamb, too light the owner thought 
to put upon the market in the fall. In the feed 
lot yearlings thrive. They do not always have 
perfect front teeth and are therefore less able 
to eat ear com. If bought light enougli their 
gain is very good. They may be fed best in 
just the way described for feeding lambs and 
their treatment need vary in no particular save 
one. Should there be any ewes among these 
yearlings the feeder must be very careful that 
they do not get access in any way to the ram, 
or that there be no rams among the lot when 
bought. 

Sheep in the feed lot will not drop living 
lambs very often. If they are sent to market 
before lambing, supposing they show strong- 
signs of pregnancy, they are subject to dockage 
and may possibly be thrown out by the in- 
spectors. 



WESTERN LAMB FEEDING. 267 

FEEDING MATURE WETHEES. 

There are advantages in feeding wetliers 
that lambs do not possess. They are big and 
strong and hardy. They do not die so easily. 
They do not need shelter so much as the lambs 
need it. They will thrive quite well on com 
and com stover with little hay. They are 
adapted to a ruder, rougher style of sheep hus- 
bandry than the lambs. 

There are, however, some few essentials to 
successful wether feeding. First and most im- 
portant is to buy the right class and to buy 
them cheap enough. With the lamb one can 
afford better to pay too much, since the gain 
in weight may be so great that the excess of 
cost may be offset by the good gain in weight 
and profitable price for it. With mature sheep 
much smaller gains can be had and if there is 
not a material advance in selling price over cost 
loss is apt to ensue. 

In lamb feeding there is often most profit in 
buying small, immature lambs. With wethers, 
on the other hand, the bigger and better 
matured they are the better the chances pre- 
sumably are for profits in feeding them. That 
is, if they have been bought low enough so 
that the selling price will be materially better. 
There is thus the desei^ved gain on the first 
cost besides the pay for what weight is put on. 
Opinions differ as to what advance in price the 
feeder of mature shee]> must have in order to 
make a profit. Certainly it depends much upon 
the selling price ; if that is high there is need of 



268 



SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 



less margin than if it is low. In general there 
should be a rise of a dollar per hundred to 
make feeding of mature sheep profitable. This 
also depends much upon the price of wool. 
When wool sells as high as 25 to 30 cents per 
pound the profit of feeding mature sheep is 




A PAIR OF HAMPSHIRE LAMBS. 

naturally much greater than when wool is low. 
Then also one can afford to feed the heavy 
shearing types, which do not naturally make 
so good gains in weight as do the more open- 
wooled and lighter shearing sorts. 

In feeding sheep there is need for much less 
protein in the ration than when lambs are fed. 



WESTERN LAMB FEEDING. 



269 



The reason is plain: the mature sheep has its 
frame already built, has nearly as much mus- 
cular structure as it will ever have. It has 
been demonstrated that feeding does not ma- 
terially add to the flesh of the animal, unless 
perhaps in case of considerable emaciation, but 
puts on fat instead, either intruding it between 




AT A ROYAL ENGLISH SHOW 



the muscles, or, what is usual with the sheep, 
depositing it in masses partly upon the inside 
and partly distributed over the body. 

The lamb, as has been noted, has its frame- 
work yet to build, therefore it needs and must 
have abundant protein, thus its thrift when fed 
such protein-carrying foods as wheat bran, oil- 
meal, soy beans and alfalfa or clover hay. 



270 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

Com, (maize) is preeminently the best food- 
stuff for fattening sheep. It may be fed in 
very economical manner. In Ohio it is the 
practice to cut the com when ripe, gathering 
it into large shocks containing from 144 to 258 
hills. These shocks tightly bound about the 
tops keep out the weather and preserve the 
ears and blades very well. From the field the 
shocks are drawn direct to the feed yard, or 
to some large, dry feeding field, where the un- 
husked corn is strewn thinly over the ground. 
Here the sheep consume the ears with little or 
no waste, trimming off the blades also. If this 
practice of feeding shock com is now supple- 
mented by supplying racks filled with clover 
or alfalfa hay the sheep are as fairly provided 
for as need be. 

Sheep consume more food than steers, weight 
for weight of animals being compared, and also 
make slightly greater gains for food consumed. 
In general sheep will consume about one-fourth 
more than steers. 

There would thus be a considerable advan- 
tage in feeding sheep over feeding cattle, when 
gains are considered and also fleeces secured, 
were it not that death losses are higher among 
sheep and also prices fluctuate considerably, 
sometimes feeders being relatively high in the 
fall and ripe sheep low in the spring. 

The management of the sheep feeding yard 
is admirably simple. There should be provided 
wind breaks. It is a saying that ''the pig can 
see the wind ' ' and the sheep can certainly feel 
it through its thick coat. Sometimes these 



WESTERN LAMB FEEDING. 271 

windbreaks are formed by long sheds, some- 
times by high fences, made tight, and some- 
tijnes they are of natural timber and brush. 
Some of the best sheep the writer has ever seen 
fed were fed in the old fashioned way on shock 
corn, in a blue-grass pasture that had been 
allowed to grow up very high and thick, and 
where open glades were interspersed with thick- 
ets of hazel, oak and hickory. In this primitive 
solitude the sheep found shelter and sustenance, 
the shock corn being strewn in the open places 
where the wind could not reach them. 

Water must be abundant and good and very 
accessible. Sheep will not thrive if they must 
go far for their drink. 

It is a good plan to provide wide, flat-bot- 
tomed troughs in which may be fed husked ear 
corn, since it will not all the season be prac- 
ticable to feed shock com. If the sheep have 
their teeth they will shell the ear corn so read- 
ily that it is not worth while shelling it for 
them. 

The hay racks are best in shelter of sheds so 
that the hay cannot become wet with rains. 
And if there is room so that all can be sheltered 
from soaking storms all the better. Dry cold 
and snow will not hurt but wet is a serious 
set-back. 

Many sheep feeders rely upon self feeders for 
shelled com for the finishing of the sheep. 
These are usually large bins, holding 20 to 100 
bushels each, with troughs on either side into 
which the com descends slowly. There seems 
less objection to the use of the self feeder for 



272 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

mature sheep than for lambs. The writer 
believes, however, that the greater profit comes 
from regular feeding in troughs of rations a 
little under the appetites of the sheep. 

A better and safer self feeder is the self 
feeding corn crib. This is built with a capacity 
of hundreds or thousands of bushels, with a 
large trough at the side into which com 
descends. Sheep shell this corn at their will 
and the cobs are thrown out as they gather. 

Sheep will gain on feed from one to four 
pounds per week, depending on their condition 
and the stage of feeding. The gains are most 
rapid just before approaching ripeness. 

Death losses in feeding mature sheep should 
be slightly less than in feeding lambs. Natur- 
ally gains are less since there is not oppor- 
tunity for much growth along with fattening. 
The writer once made a gain of 45 lbs. with 
lambs in the bam while his wethers outside, 
very well fed, gained 20 lbs. The wethers con- 
sumed more corn than the lambs but had no 
wheat or bran which the lambs had. 

Sheep will consume better than lambs vari- 
ous coarse fodders. Soy bean straw they relish, 
if it is not weather damaged, and bean and pea 
straw. When only a maintenance ration is fed 
it may consist largely of these fodders, with a 
trifle of grain to keep up the weight. 

While in the region west of the Missouri 
sheep feeding is carried on in this rather 
primitive fashion, in Michigan and Ohio it has 
progressed further toward a better solution of 
the problem. The writer has a neighbor who 



o 




WESTERN I^AMB FEEDING. 275 

has fed sheep for many years. This neighbor, 
Charles Bales of Madison Co., formerly fed in 
open yards protected only by high fences. In 
these yards he fed with shock com, using self 
feeders toward the latter part of the period. 
He was able to get a gain of about 30 pounds, 
using the best class of Montana feeders. 

Later he built barns and sheds in whicli he 
fed clover and alfalfa hay. Continuing his 
grain feeding in much the same manner he 
was able to increase his average gain so that 
1,000 sheep weighing when they went into tlie 
yard 110 lbs. average increased to a weight of 
156 lbs. besides shearing a fleece of 10 pounds. 
At the same time he cut down his death losses 
to 2 sheep from 1,200 one year and again to 
6 from 1,200. He attributes the lighter losses 
to the fact of the sheep being more comfortable, 
thus eating with more regularity and not in- 
juring their digestions by sudden overloading 
of grain. He now believes that the self feeders 
should be under cover and only the sliock corn 
fed in yards. 

Mr. Bales makes a, practice of saving the late 
summer growth of blue-grass on large pastures, 
on which the sheep are turned in October or 
November. On these pastures they remain 
until Christmas or sometimes till February if 
the season is suitable, having also* racks filled 
with clover or alfalfa hay. They then go to the 
yards for the final feeding, going to market, 
shorn, in May. 

Mr. Bales thinks the secret of success in feed- 
ing wethers is to buy the best, using those with 



2*76 SHEEiP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

a Cotswold or Lincoln cross if obtainable, and 
to keep them stuffed at all times full of grass 
or clover or alfalfa hay. He finds that by this 
method they consume less com and do not 
suffer from indigestion from the result of too 
much com. 

He does not bring the sheep to i>asture until 
such time as danger from infection of intestinal 
parasites is past. 



CHAPTER IX 



THE DISEASES OF SHEEP. 

AILMENTS IN GENERAL. 

The writer knows that sooner or hiter the 
reader will feel a sudden need of knowledge of 
sheep diseases and the remedies therefor. Thus, 
at the risk of duplicating a good deal that has 
been said elsewhere, he devotes this chapter 
specifically to sheep diseases. 

At the outset let him say that to the novice, 
and sometimes to the professional, it is very 
difficult oftentimes to say just what ails a sick 
sheep. Diseases may, however, be divided into 
three principal classes. 

First, there may be some external parasite, 
as the tick, louse, scab or foot rot (which is in 
a sense an external disease.) 

Second, there may be some form of internal 
parasitism. This may be a worm in the stom- 
ach or intestines, in the throat or lungs, or an 
encysted worm making a bladder in the brain. 
And one of these internal parasites or another 
is the cause of most of the sickness among 
sheep. 

Last, there may be some derangement of the 
digestion due to improper feeding, no feeding 

(277) 



278 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

at all, or gorging witli grain. And in some 
regions, among the class of slieep men who feed 
sheep in winter, nearly all diseases are of this 
origin. 

Now as to chance of cure. For external para- 
sites cure is easy and cheap. For scab, lice, 
and ticks there is the dipping bath, and this 
has been carefully explained in another place. 
Foot-rot is also of rather easy treatment. 

These things are matters requiring timely 
and prompt treatment and are no cause for 
alarm whatever except as scab breaks out in 
the winter time in the middle of the feeding 
season, when it is costly to dip and the slieep 
have serious set-back therefrom. Indeed it is 
not just proper to class these external parasites 
as disenses, any more than fleas on a man's 
back, though they cause disease if left un- 
checked. 

The matter of intcTnal parasites is mucli 
more serious. Nine-tenths of all the troubles 
of sheep east of the Missouri river are caused 
by some form or other of these plagues, or by 
a combination of them. We will presently give 
to them some attention in detail. 

!Derangements of the digestion, caused by too 
much or too little food, or by food of improper 
quality, are often hard to diagnose. For ex- 
ample, recently a neighbor of the writer came 
to him for advice. His wethers suffered from 
some brain disorder, they turned around and 
around in small circles, acting stupefied; they 
lingered a few days and died. These sheep had 
come from the same range in Montana. The 



THE DISEASES OF SHEEP. 279 

writer promptly diagnosed the disease as 
^^gid" or ^Hurn sickness" caused by the en- 
cysted parasites called Taenia Coennrus. This 
devil is the fruit of a tape worm, that infests 
dogs or wolves. The eggs pass from the dogs 
or wolves and are taken in by the sheep on the 
grass or in their drinking water. They hatch 
within the sheep and the young worms pierce 
the walls of the stomach, gaining the blood 
where they travel until they reach the brain, 
where they undergo a change, developing heads 
and making large bladders in w^hich to live. 
It is necessary that the sheep should die after 
these cysts have reached a certain stage of 
development so that some dog, fox or wolf may 
feed upon the affected heads and thus take into 
their own systems the parasites which become 
established there as regular tape worms. Thus 
the round is continued, the tape worm within 
the dog or wolf reinfects the grass, the sheep 
becomes affected, dies, to infect more dogs (if 
there are any). Now the way this hydatid 
affects sheep is by pressing upon the brain 
substance and absorbing it until the nervous 
system is quite deranged, the sheep is stupid, 
it turns steadily round and round, always the 
same way, neglects food and dies. 

The disease is somewhat prevalent in Eng- 
land and Scotland some years but is probably 
rare in America, at least in a rather long ex- 
perience the writer is not sure that he has ever 
seen an instance of it, and from his book lore 
he advised his neighbor to dissect the next 
ailing sheep and look for the brain bladder 



280 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

worm or hydatid. The neighbor obeyed, but 
no brain disease was found. Another neighbor 
sent word to the afflicted one to cease feeding 
millet hay full of seed, which he did and lost 
no more sheep, having lost some 30 before. 
Thus there was a clear case of deranged diges- 
tion deceiving one by the symptoms resembling 
those of brain parasitism. 

The writer has seen other instances of de- 
ranged digestion that in the last stages gave 
symptoms very like the ones described. 

Now a word about true ^^tuni sickness. '^ It 
is sometimes possible to cure the disease by 
locating the place in the brain where the blad- 
der is formed and cutting through the skull and 
destroying the parasite by puncturing the sac 
that holds it. Eecovery sometimes follows this 
operation, it is said. And in Scotland it is re- 
ported that some shepherds have such skill that 
they can push a sharp wire up the nostril till 
it locates and punctures the bladder in the 
brain. This is an interesting and astounding 
fact, if true. In practice, in America, where 
sheep are clieap and veterinarians of moderate 
skill in sheep diseases are costly to employ for 
such cases, it is best to kill the sheep for mut- 
ton (which is not hurt by the brain hydatid in 
the earlier stages), feed the head to the fire, 
and not to dogs and call for a new deal. It is 
a safe rule never to allow a dog or wolf to 
devour a sheep's head at any time. And. dogs 
about the place may well be treated for tape 
worms. Doctor Rushworth prescribes for tape 
worm in dogs : ^ ' The dog to be treated shoulcj 



THE DISEASES OF SHEEP. 281 

not be fed for at least twelve hours before re- 
ceiving the medicine but it can be allowed all 
the water it chooses. The evening before ad- 
ministering the worm medicine a. dose of castor 
oil is advisable ; for large dogs the dose is three 
tablespoonfuls. Then in the morning take of 
kamala 3 drachms, gruel 1 ounce, mix and give 
as a dose. With a medium sized dog two 
drachms of kamala will be sufficient. This is 
a very effective taeniacide. ' ' 

Now as to the cure of disorders caused by 
overfeeding in the barn or feed lot. Cases will 
occur in the best regulated bams, not very 
many when things are carefully done, but 
always some. The writer and his brothers and 
neighbors have lost hundreds of sheep and 
lambs in this manner and tried many reputed 
remedies. He does not now believe he has ever 
benefited a sick sheep by medicine or treat- 
ment when the cause was due to serious de- 
rangement of digestion. Death is almost sure to 
follow no matter what you may do. If there 
is virtue in any thing it is in simply taking 
the sheep away from all grain whatever and 
letting it alone. If there is not too much in- 
ternal disorder that will cure, but in ninety- 
nine cases out of a hundred when the sheep is 
sick enough to' be very noticeable it will die 
no matter what you may do. So prevention, 
not remedy, is the rule for disorders of the 
digestion. These cases come from gorging with 
grain and there is probably some toxic poison 
formed, for in many instances where the writer 
has made post-mortem examinations of afflicted 



282 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

sheep immediately after death no morbid con- 
dition was apparent save a slight inflammation 
of some part of the intestinal tract, and some- 
times even this was not in evidence. 

Disorders of the bladder causing stoppage of 
the urine are caused by the deposit of limy 
substances in the bladder, which become 
washed into the urethra where they lodge, 
causing inflammation, stoppage of the urine, a 
period of suffering accompanied with great dis- 
tension of the bladder, then death. 

The reason for this disorder seems to be in 
some instances the eating of too many mangels, 
rich in lime, the eating of too much salt, or the 
drinking of water too ^4iard" with lime. The 
worst instance that ever came under the 
writer's observation was in his own feeding 
bams where he had a great store of oat hay, 
put up so very moist that to save it, it was 
liberally sprinkled with salt. The salt was 
greatly in excess of the needs of the animals 
and made them consume much more water than 
they otherwise would. Very many of the weth- 
er lambs became afflicted with this distressing 
malady and many remedies were attempted to 
save them. Some few may have been bene- 
fited, though the writer doubts it. It is recom- 
mended to cut off the vermiform appendage in 
the end of the penis, and to slit the penis, open- 
ing the urethra, to free it from limy substances 
that obstruct. The writer advises prevention, 
and in his own experience, with thousands of 
sheep and lambs under observation fed by his 
brothers for some years, good plain practice, 



THE DISEASES OP SHEEP. 283 

using the same water supply, has resulted in 
not one instance of ^' water belly/' The writer 
has been informed of other instances where oat 
hay had seemingly caused this disorder with- 
out the accompaniment of an overdose of salt. 

The use of clover or alfalfa hay with com 
silage in not too great quantity and com, with 
oats or bran if desired, will not cause this dis- 
order in one instance in thousands. 

This is not a treatise on starvation, but it 
may be as well to drop here a hint that sheep 
that have been starved near to death for some 
time are not usually profitable animals to buy^ 
since they take a long time to recover and many 
will die in the process unless great care is used 
in building them up again. The writer has 
known instances of famishing sheep being 
bought for a few cents each on some dried-up 
and overstocked range, shipped to other more 
fruitful ranges distant some ways and there 
turned out on good grass. They died rapidly, 
however, and continued to die for some time 
after being placed on the good feed. 

IMPORTANCE OF POST-MORTEM DISSECTION. 

The novice in sheep breeding and feeding, or 
the old hand for that matter, should take fre- 
quent opportunity of post-mortem examination 
of a sheep recently dead, seeking to see whether 
the cause of death is from disordered digestion 
or parasitic infection. It is useless to dissect 
a sheep that has been dead for some days and 
even after the lapse of a few hours there will 
come very misleading appearances, as of blood 



284 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

settling in one part or another, that will cause 
him to form very curious conclusions as to the 
cause of death and miss the real cause entirely. 
It would be amusing if it was not so annoying 
to read the letters from sheep owners attempt- 
ing to describe the symptoms of their sick 
sheep and the results found after their making 
crude post-mortem examination. 

Let us rest the case here that only careful, 
regular and judicious feeding will prevent 
death in the bam and feed lot and that medica- 
tion for ''water belly" or retention of urine 
and for serious indigestion has never yet 
proved of use. The fact is that the sheep suf- 
fering from slight indigestion is not readily 
detected among hundreds, and when its case is 
obvious it is too far gone to be helped by any 
known treatment whatever. 

OTHER DISEASES OF SHEEP. 

Of a long list of diseases that sheep may 
sometimes be afflicted with, such as rheuma- 
tism, apoplexy, goitre ''pining", humping, ery- 
sipelas, actinomycosis, tetanus, rabies, sheep 
pox, and a lot of other diseases usually cata- 
logued, the writer has seldom seen an instance 
in his own flocks and if he had seen it would 
have felt powerless to help, with all the knowl- 
edge of specialists available. Sheep are said 
to suffer sometimes from black leg, but it is 
rarely if ever reported in America, and in Eng- 
land, on the extremely fertile pastures of Kent, 
sheep suffer from anthrax. This disease is rare 
indeed in America among sheep. 



THE DISEASES OF SHEEP. 285 

Sheep do not suffer from tuberculosis, at 
least tlie disease is exceedingly rare among 
sheep in America or elsewhere. 

In truth, of the long list of diseases usually 
catalogued as occurring in sheep the shepherd 
will not in his lifetime observe more than one 
or two, always excepting the diseases that come 
from internal or external parasites, from un- 
wise feeding and from garget of the udder. 

It is wise, therefore, to study carefully the 
question of the internal parasite and to learn 
ways of management that will avoid them. 
This learned all the long catalogue of diseases 
may repose serenely upon the library shelf, 
since the occurrence of an instance of one of 
them in the flock will be of the rarest. 

GAKCxET OR MAMMITIS. 

This is a disease that affects the udders of 
the very best and largest milking ewes, pre- 
ferring those that are best bred and most cod- 
dled. The symptoms are a hard, distended 
udder, from which a changed sort of watery 
milk may be drawn, which often becomes 
streaked with blood and sometimes with pus. 
The flesh of the udder is often red or purple 
and upon pressure can be dented with the hand. 
The sheep has fever and distress, milk secretion 
ceases, the udder mortifies and if the ewe lives 
long enough it sloughs off, leaving a sore slow 
to heal. In mild cases the symptoms are much 
less severe and the ewe soon recovers, losing 
perhaps the use of one quarter of her udder. 

One of the causes that led the author to 



286 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

attempt this work was his despair of finding 
light on this and some other subjects in any 
existent book that had come to his notice. The 
causes usually assigned to the production of 
garget are lying on the cold ground, bunting 
by lambs or from having too much milk for the 
lamb to take clean. Doubtless all these things 
are evils, but the writer is convinced that the 
cause of garget is something quite apart from 
any one of them. 

Doubtless there are two forms of garget, 
caused by different things and running differ- 
ent courses. Too much milk in the udder, 
caused by the death or removal of a lamb, may 
cause caked bag and injure a portion of the 
udder, but that is a far dift'erent disease from 
the malignant garget that has often nearly 
broken the heart of the writer and of his 
younger brother, upon whose shoulders the 
mantle of shepherding on Woodland Farm has 
fallen. Indeed, excepting that the seat of the 
disease is in the udder, there are no symptoms 
in common with the two diseases. The writer 
has never seen a case of caked bag result fatally 
and but one or two of real garget recover, those 
after a long period of healing when the entire 
udder had sloughed off. 

The writer believes that all the cases of 
malignant garget that have come under his 
observation have had a common cause, one not 
mentioned in the books, a sudden increase in 
the food of the ewe, resulting in perhaps some 
morbid change in her blood that going to^ the 
udder, shortly after her lambing (the period has 



THE DISEASES OF SHEEP, 28'7 

sometimes been as long perhaps as two weeks 
thereafter) and finding there some favorite 
germ has set up there the great and rapid 
destruction of live tissue that is seen. Doubt- 
less the disease is caused by the multiplication 
of microbes coming from an introduced germ, 
equally doubtless the conditions must be right 
for the development of the germ. And the 
right conditions seem to be the derangement 
of the blood by too much food, especially by 
feeding with corn. 

A learned veterinarian once related to the 
writer that he had never dissected the udder of 
a cow without finding therein, along with the 
milk ducts, germs of bacteria that he consid- 
ered the agents that cause bovine garget. How 
the germ got there he could not tell. When 
conditions were right for the germ it multiplied 
and did its work of destruction. When con- 
ditions were right for the cow it remained, 
waiting. This is probably the explanation also 
in the case of the ewe. 

Corn feeding of milking ewes has apparently 
induced most of the cases of malignant garget 
that have come under the writer's observ^ation. 
Indeed he has seen a fine ewe, proud of her two 
beautiful lambs, with an udder like a Jersey 
cow, break into the lot of the feeding lambs and 
gorge herself with corn, and predicted at once 
that she would come down with garget, and 
has seen his sombre prediction verified, has had 
the sad task of trying to find mothers for the 
two worse than orphans and nursed the mother 
for weeks till at last, ghost of her former self, 



288 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

she went with the flock again, her udder com- 
pletely gone and onh^ a partly healed surface 
to show where it had sloughed off. 

The books prescribe for malignant garget 
hot water, camphor, applied externally, and 
epsom salts and iron and quinine taken inter- 
nally. The writer after faithful efforts with 
hot water and all the rest of the remedies does 
not feel that he has ever in one instance even 
mitigated the horrors of this form of garget, 
so will not burden the reader with his recipes. 
Let the shei)lierd experiencing his first instance 
of trouble resolve that hereafter his ewes shall 
have the most gradual increase in feed after 
lambing, that they shall be given little corn 
and more bran, oats and early-cut clover or 
alfalfa hay, with roots or silage to make milk 
and that by this means he can prevent future 
inflictions of this nature. 

For the simpler form of caked bag, however, 
hot water applications are doubtless good, with 
rubbings of camphor and belladonna, and some 
have recommended counter irritants like kero- 
sene oil. This form will never occur either if 
the shepherd will-keep the ewe milked out after 
lambing, and perhaps sometimes just before 
lambing if she is a wonderful milker, and will 
feed right, taking care also at weaning time. 

GRUB IN THE HEAD. 

Most of the old sheep books have chapters 
on this disease. It seems therefore the duty 
of the writer to do likewise, although he must 
confess that his practical experience with the 



THE DISEASES OF SHEEP. 289 

pest has been very small. Tliis may be because 
his flocks have almost always had shade of dark 
barn basements in which to lie during the heat 
of the day, conditions not conducive to the depo- 
sition of the eggs that hatching in the nostrils 
of the sheep crawl up into the sinuses of the 
nose and form the mature grubs. It may be, 
also, that well nourished sheep the more easily 
repel the grubs, or endure them with least in- 
jury. 

There is no cure for grubs, once they are 
established. They can not crawl into the brain 
of the sheep. They will come out of their own 
accord in due time. They then turn into a. fly 
that in turn lays eggs for more grubs. You 
cannot do anything except to feed well the 
sheep. ''Grub in the belly is a. cure for grub 
in the head" is an old saying. Tar on the noses 
will let the sheep eat in comfort; once shep- 
herds bored holes in logs and put salt in the 
bottom of the holes and pine tar around them. 
Sheep eating the salt got the tar. It needed 
replenishing daily, or oftener. Easier is the 
darkened shed for the sheep to lie in. 

LIVER FLUKE. — '^ THE EOT.''' 

This terrible disease has caused in the past 
great havoc in the old world. It is less prev- 
alent there since the underdraining of their 
lands. It was a parasitic disease, the parasite 
passing one stage of its life in the liver of the 
sheep, the other in the body of a snail. If there 
is no water for the snail (a water species is 
chosen) the flukes cannot propagate. There is 



290 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

very little if any o£ the disease in America, 
thank God. We have our own peculiar troubles 
and need no "rot/^ 

NODULAE DISEASE. 

This is the disease commonly called by butch- 
ers '' knotty guts.'' It is characterized by 
small tumors on the intestines, the tumors 
filled with a greenish cheesy substance. The 
disease is caused by a small worm, about an 
inch long, called oesophagostoma columbianum. 
The worm thrives in spite of his name. This 
worm seems a distinctly American species, in- 
habiting deer, goats and sheep, possibly rabbits. 
What it does to the sheep is to interfere with 
the digestion and assimilation of food. It 
works its way gradually into a flock and brings 
ruin to it. There is no cure. Fortunately its 
[)rogress is usually slow and it takes years to 
kill a sheep, as a rule. The way of spreading 
is by infecting the soil and grass through the 
excrements of the afflicted sheep. Therefore 
when sheep are so managed that lambs do not 
graze much behind their mothers they will not 
become affected. Presumably the contamina- 
tion of the soil will not last longer than one 
year. This point we hope will be demonstrated 
by our national or state experiment stations 
before long. It is a vital necessity to know that 
of both the nodular disease and the stomach 
worm. Thus it is evident that a healthy flock 
can be produced by not intermixing the infec- 
tion free young sheep with the infected older 
ones, and fattening and marketing the older 



THE DISEASES OF SHEEP. 291 

ones as fast as practicable. Little or nothing in 
the way of medication can be done to cure the 
afflicted sheep. Prevention of the disease by 
right treatment of the young ones is fortunately 



TAPE WOKMS. 

There are occasionally outbreaks of disease 
caused by tape worms. Montana and Dakota 
have suffered from these outbreaks, also vari- 
ous regions in the ICastern states. The writer 
has never observed a case of this kind upon the 
farm occupied by himself and his brothers and 
attributes this freedom from infection in ])ait 
at least to the free feeding of pumpkins in the 
fall of almost every year. Pumpkin seed are 
well known vermifuges of great value. 

The tape worm of sheep, taenia expansa, 
varies in length from three to six yards. It is 
from one twenty-fifth of an inch in breadth at 
the head to one-half an inch at the tail. In ap- 
pearance it is a dull white. It causes scouring, 
bloodlessness, white skin, emaciation, weakness 
and sometimes death. 

The treatment should be to each one of the 
affected flock. Prepare them for treatment by 
fasting for 12 hours. After being treated they 
should be confined for 24 hours so that the seg- 
ments of tape worm expelled will not be scat- 
tered over the fields, to further infect them. 
The sheep should after treatment has been 
deemed satisfactory be put on clean, fresh 
ground. 

Doctor Rush worth recommends kamala for 
tape worms. The dose is three drachms mixed 



292 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

well in three ounces of linseed gniel, this dose 
for adult sheep. Lambs will require from one 
to two drachms, according to their size. 

Any medicine administered to a sheep should 
be given with the sheep standing in a natural 
position, with its head raised not too high, and 
given slowly, so that it may pass at once into 
the fourth stomach. If it passes into the 
paunch it will probably not do much good. 

If the kamala does not prove effective Eush- 
worth advises giving ethereal extract male 
shield fern, one drachm, castor oil, four ounces, 
mix and give as a dose to mature sheep. Lambs 
can have from one to three-fourths of this dose. 

A tonic is then prescribed, consisting of salt, 
2 pounds, epsom salts, 1 pound, sulphate of 
iron, one-half pound, powdered gentian, one- 
half pound, nitrate of potash, 4 ounces. This 
is to be mixed together and fed to 100 sheep, in 
oats, bran or other feed. The writer believes 
good feed and change of pasture will make 
much tonic unnecessary. 

HUSK, HOOSE OK PAKASITIC BEONCHITIS. 

There is a minute parasitic worm called 
Strongylus filaria that inhabits the bronchial 
tubes, causing the animals to cough and run at 
the nose, sometimes bringing death. In the 
opinion of the writer this is not a very prev- 
alent disease in America, fortunately. The 
remedy is thought to' be to fumigate with sul- 
phur. The writer has tried the remedy and 
though the lambs treated did not have the dis- 
ease for which he treated them they mostly sur- 



THE DISEASES OF SHEEP. 293 

vived the operation. What they had, and what 
most coughing, emaciated lambs have, is a re- 
lated parasite, of far more import to us all, the 
dreaded stomach worm. 

THE STOMACH WORM. 

This little worm is but % of an inch long 
and about as thick as a hair. It lives in the 
fourth stomach and especially afflicts lambs. 
It causes the diseases (or symptoms, rather) of 
''l)aper skin", ''black scours", '' lamb cholera" 
and so on. It attacks lambs at any age after 
they begin to nibble grass until cool weather 
comes in the fall. It is the smallest parasite yet 
mentioned in this list of diseases and has 
wrought a hundred times the havoc that these 
have all together. It has devastated whole 
regions so that the shee]i industry has ])een 
given up to them and men have taken to breed- 
ing swine. The stonuich worm is responsible 
for gullied hillsides, abandoned farms, and sons 
leaving the farm. It is not a new pest but 
in olden time men when they suffered from it 
did not know the cause. Many years ago it 
swept over Ohio, decimating the Merino flocks, 
and over all the states of the coTn-belt. Then 
no remedy was known, nor was it understoofl 
whence came infection or how immunity could 
be had. Now we know all this and the stomach 
worm has lost its terrors to the intelligent and 
watchful shepherd. 

'This fourth stomach of the sheep is just 
where the intestines attach and where an im- 
portant part of the digestion takes place. 



294 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

AVlien it is filled witli these tiny worms diges- 
tion is wonderfully disturbed and the lamb 
loses tone, the wool appears dead, the skin loses 
its pinkness, the appetite is deranged. The 
lamb may scour and may be constipated. It 
eats earth or rotten wood, in the latter stages 
of the disease. There may come a dropsical 
swelling beneath the under ja\y. This is not a 
disease, only a symptom of the disease. 

Depend upon it, if it is May, or from then 
till October, and your lambs are droopy, lan- 
guid, their wool dead looking, their skins 
chalky, they have stomach worms. Just catch 
one and kill it, dissect it at once and examine 
the fourth stomach with care. You will surely 
see there the little writhing serpents that do 
the mischief. 

These worms inhabit old sheep too, but do 
not do to them so much harm. The life history 
is like this: The worms become mature in the 
body of the older sheep and i)ass out, laden 
with eggs about to hatch. The little worms do 
something, we dO' not know what, to get back 
into the sheep again. Maybe they crawl up a 
little way on the grass. The lambs come along 
and nibbling close on tender grass where the 
ewes' excrements have been dropped take in 
the worms. They mature in the lamb and raise 
liavoc there as we have said. 

Now cold weather either numbs or destroys 
these worms, so that there is no danger of in- 
fection in winter, late fall or early spring. 

Elsewhere, in management, the prevention of 
stomach wonns is described. Here we will con- 



THE DISEASES OF SHEEP. 295 

cern ourselves with tlie cure of afflicted lambs. 
The writer has dosed hundreds. For a number 
of years he has, on the same farm, had no cases 
to dose. Moral : there is something in manage- 
ment. But there is something in cure also. 
Therefore the writer appends parts of a bulle- 
tin of the U. S. Bureau of Animal Industry 
prepared by Oh. Wardell Stiles and issued in 
July, 1901. The writer has faith in the gaso- 
line treatment and was the first man in Amer- 
ica to administer it. His brother has had bet- 
ter success with carbolic acid than coal tar 
creosote, using 12 drops for a mature sheep, 
given in milk. The bulletin follows: 

TREATMENT FOR ROUNDWORMS IN SHEEP, GOATS 
AND CATTLE. 

Sheep, goats, and cattle suffer from the 
effects of roundworms. This is especially true 
during wet years. These parasites are found 
particularly in the lungs, the fourth stomach, 
and the bowels, and, when present in large 
numbers, they may result in the death of 5 to 
50 per cent of a flock. For some of these para- 
sites, treatment is possible; but for others, 
treatment has not been found altogether satis- 
factory. ' 

Eoundworms which live free in the fourth 
istomach or in the bowels may be expelled by 
using various drugs in drenches. A long list of 
medicines might be mentioned, but many of the 
drugs most highlv recommended frequently fail 
to effect a cure.' Failures are due to several 
causes: The dinig itself may be of little or no 



296 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

value; it may not be administered in the proper 
dose; it may not be administered in the proper 
way. 

One of the most commonly used drenches is 
turpentine, but more satisfactory results are 
obtained from the use of coal-tar creosote, or 
coal-tar creosote and thymol, or gasoline, or 
bluestone. 

COAL-TAR CREOSOTE. 

I have had excellent success in treating 
sheep, goats, and cattle for the twisted wire- 
worm (Strongylus contort us) witli a 1 per cent 
solution of coal-tar creosote. The medicine is 
easily prepared and quite inexpensive. It may 
be purchased of the druggist in small quantities 
of 1 ounce, or in pound bottles. One ounce is 
sufficient for about 20 adult sheep, and the cost 
of the treatment is less than one-half a cent per 
head; if creosote is purchased by the pound, the 
cost is reduced to less than one-quarter of a 
cent per head. If creosote is called for at a 
drug store, beech wood creosote will usually be 
dispensed. This is more expensive than the 
coal-tar creosote and not so satisfactory in ex- 
pelling worms. 

A 1 per cent solution of coal-tar creosote is 
made as follows: 

Coal-tar creosote 1 ounce. 

Water 99 ounces 

(99 ounces = 6 pints and 3 ounces.) 

Twisted wireworms (Strongylus contortus) 
taken directly from the stomach of sheep or 
cattle die in one-half to one and a half minutes 
when immersed in this solution. 



THE DISEASES OF SHEEP. 297 

If, in dosing, this liquid enters the lungs the 
animal may succumb in a few minutes. If the 
dosing is performed carefully, as much as 6 2-3 
ounces may be given to a full-grown sheep 
without fatal results. In some cases, however, 
the animal shows ill effects, from which it usu- 
ally recovers within half an hour. Six ounces 
were given to a number of sheep without the 
slightest ill effects. The following table gives 
the doses of the 1 per cent mixture wliicli were 
used in about 400 cases without ill effects: 

Lambs 4 to 12 months old 2 to 4 ounces (about 60 to 120 c. c. ) 

Yearling sheep and above 3 to 5 ounces (about 90 to 150 c. c.) 

Calves 3 to 8 months old 5 to 10 ounces (about 150 to 300 c. c.) 

Yearling steers 1 pint (about 480 c. c.) 

Two-year-olds and above 1 quart (about 960 c. c.) 

Sheep, goats, and calves which received this 
ti*eatinent 'showed a marked improvement a 
few days after receiving a single dose. 

In experiments with creosote at Washing- 
ton, D. C, sheep were drenched with a 1 per 
cent solution and killed immediately after- 
wards. Upon opening the fourth stomach, it 
was found that the wireworms present were 
dead. In some cases where this was tried later, 
the wireworms were found to be still alive ; but 
it is believed that the explanation of this fact 
has now been discovered, as will later be seen. 
Creosote does not appear to have much effect 
upon the worms below the stomach. 

If an overdose is given by mistake, and if 
the sheep appears severely affected by it, the 
animal should be placed in the shade. Even in 
some cases of very severe overdoses, where the 



298 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

animal is given up for dead practically, it may 
entirely recover within an hour or so. 

COAL-TAR CEEOSOTE AND THYMOL. 

If, in addition to the stomach worms, the 
animals were suffering from severe infection of 
bowel worms, such as the hook worms, better 
results were obtained in the treatment wlien 
powdered thymol was added to the creosote. 
In cases of this kind, the creosote solution is 
prepared, as already directed, and 30 to 80 or 
even 100 grains of thymol added to each dose 
after it has been measured. 

Thymol is expensive, the price varying in 
different parts of the country. It may be pur- 
chased by the ounce, but it is considerably 
cheaper if purchased by the pound. Avoid 
using thymol which has become yellowish or 
reddish and which has run together in the bot- 
tle so as to form a solid mass. Powder the 
crystals and have the druggist measure 30 
grains. Give 30 grains to a lamb, about 50 
grains to a yearling, and 70 to 80 or 100 grains 
to older sheep, according to size. 

In experiments I have had excellent results 
with a single dose of the creosote and thymol 
mixture. If necessary, however, the dose could 
be repeated after a week. 

I have used bluestone on several occasions 
and, although it proved more or less successful, 
it was not so satisfactory as creosote or as gaso- 
line. 

GASOLINE. 

Gasoline has recently gained consid^^rable 



THE DISEASES OF SHEEP. 299 

reputation as a vermifuge. I have used it in 
a number of cases and have found the claims 
made for it to be more or less justified. Three 
objections, however, arise to its use, and I can 
not, therefore, consider it an ideal treatment. 
These objections are: 

(1) Not less than three doses, and usually 
four to six, are required to expel the worms. 
This involves a great expenditure of labor, and 
it is therefore impracticable on the large 
ranches. 

(2) While several doses are not necessarily 
injurious to the stock, still, if the doses are 
large, repeated drenches cause a more or less 
severe congestion of the bowels. Not only that, 
but repeated handling of range sheep, with the 
necessary preliminary treatment of withhold- 
ing food, is injurious to the animals. 

(3) If used on animals suffering from 
pleurisy, it is likely to be fatal. 1 have had 
several fatal cases of this kind. 

Nearly all vermifuges are, however, more or 
less poisonous in one way or another, and gaso- 
line, if properly used, is not particularly dan- 
gerous. The necessity of repeating the dose 
from four to nine times in order to effect a 
complete cure will, however, militate against 
its general adoption. 

If gasoline is used, ammonia also shouhl al- 
ways be kept on hand. If an animal is sud- 
denly overcome by the effects of gasoline, a 
small amount (a teaspoonful or so) of aromatic 
spirits of ammonia may be given in water as a 



300 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

drench, to be repeated if necessary, and will 
nsiially result in the recovery of the patient. 

The usual doses of gasoline for stomach 
worms are: 

Lambs bounce. 

Sheep Vs ounce. 

Calves V2 ounce. 

Yearling steers 1 ounce. 

I have used these doses repeatedly without 
any serious effects. Each dose is mixed sepa- 
rately in linseed oil, sweet milk, flaxseed tea, or 
an egg, and given as a drench. If given di- 
rectly in water, it is more severe on the patient. 

'An ounce and a half of gasoline has resulted 
in the immediate death of a full-grown ewe, 
but in some cases I have given to full-grown 
sheep as high as 2 to 3 ounces without serious 
results. I have also given as much as 3 ounces 
to a yearling steer, and 7 ounces (within an 
hour) to a horse without causing serious symp- 
toms. I have also given 3 ounces to a full- 
grown cliicken; the animal became very stupid 
for a time, but eventually recovered. On the 
other hand, in one case, a yearling steer, in 
apparently quite healthy condition, succumbed 
within two minutes after a, dose of 1% ounces. 
These large doses were given experimentally to 
determine the danger point, and they should 
never be used by farmers in treating stock. 

In one instance a steer was suddenly over- 
come because the man who was administering 
the dose for me accidentally held the head too 
high and the medicine entered the lungs. The 
animal fell immediately and appeared to be 
almost dead. I happened to have a hypodermic 



THE DISEASES OF SHEEP. 301 

syringe with me and some tablets of sulphate 
of strychnine. A hypodermic injection of this 
substance was immediately given and within 
five minutes the animal was feeding as if noth- 
ing had happened. This incident led me to 
overdose several animals with gasoline and 
then to try to revive them with hypodermic 
injections of strychnine. In all cases the treat- 
ment was successful. It is thus seen that in- 
jury from gasoline may be counteracted by 
either aromatic spirits of ammonia or by 
strychnine. 

METHODS OF DRENCHING ANIMALS. 

The popular method of drenching is with a 
bottle. The use of a drenching tube is, how- 
ever, far more satisfactory. A drenching tube 
may be made by taking an ordinary tin fun- 
nel, which may be purchased for five or ten 
cents, and inserting the narrow end into one 
end of a rubber tube or hose, say, three feet 
long and three-eighths or one-half inch in 
diameter; into the other end of the rubber tube 
is inserted a piece of three-eighths-inch brass 
or iron tubing about 4 to 6 inches long. 

The metal tube is placed between the ani- 
mal's back teeth, and the sheep or calf is al- 
lowed to bite upon it. The water or drench is 
poured into the funnel, which m.ay be held by 
an assistant or fastened to a post at a con- 
venient height. The man who holds the metal 
tube between the animal 's teeth can control the 
animal's head with the left hand, and by hold- 
ing the tube in the right hand, near tlie point 



802 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

of union of the rubber and metal tubes, he can 
easily control the flow of the fluid by pinching 
the rubber hose. Care must be taken not to 
hold the patient's nostrils closed, otherwise the 
dose will enter the lungs. 

It is usually advisable to fast animals 12 to 
16 hoursf before dosing. 

POSITION OF ANIMAL DURING DRENCHING. 

Different persons prefer to hold the animals 
in different positions during drenching. Thus 
(1) the animal may be left standing on all four 
feet; or (2) it may be placed on its haunches, 
one man holding its back up against his ovyii 
body; or (3) it may be placed directly on its 
back on a sloping piece of ground, its head be- 
ing in a direct line with its back, and higher 
than its rump; or (4) it may be placed upon its 
side, the head being brought around so that the 
horns are squarely on the ground; the operator 
may then place one foot on one of tlie horns 
(especially in the case of semi-wild cattle) and 
thus aid in holding the animal still. 

So far as administering the doses is con- 
cerned, the position on the back (3) is by far 
the easiest in the case of sheep, and the side 
position with head down (4) is the easiest in 
dosing cattle; furthermore, in these positions 
there is much less danger of an accident by 
getting the dose in the lungs. If animals are 
dosed standing or on their haunches, the nose 
should never be allowed to go above the eyes; 
otherwise the drencli may [)ass down the wind- 
pipe into the lungs. 



THE DISEASESJOF SHEEP. 303 

By dosing sheep with water colored red and 
blue with dyeing material, and killing the ani- 
mals immediately after the liquid was swal- 
lowed, the following results were obtained: 

If the dose was given with the sheep stand- 
ing (1), almost the entire quantity went di- 
rectly into the fourth stomach ; if the shee]3 was 
placed on its haunches, the fluid passed in part 
into the fourth stomach and in part into the 
first (the paunch) ; if the sheep was placed 
directly on its back (3), or if a steer was placed 
on its side (4), with head down, almost the 
entire dose passed into the first stomach (the 
paunch). If the animal, even when standing 
(I), struggled to a considerable degree, a por- 
tion of the fluid passed into the paunch. 

It will be immediately apparent that these 
facts are of practical importance in dosing. If, 
for instance, gasoline, turpentine, or creosote is 
used, better results may be expected if the 
sheep is dosed standing (1). 

No practical medicinal treatment is known 
for the flat worms of the liver, and the treat- 
ment for tapeworms in the bowels of ruminants 
is frequently misuccessful. 

STAKT WITH A HEALTHY FLOCK. 

It may be that the reader has a flock of dis- 
eased sheep. He has had much trouble with 
stomach worms, or the nodular disease has in- 
vaded the flock, or he has bad losses from tape- 
worms. Shall he therefore go out of business? 

That, indeed, may be his best course. To 
send to market the diseased flock, first fatten- 



304 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

ing the sheep as well as possible, and to let the 
land rest for two years will be quite sure to 
make the land clean, ready for a new flock. 
But there are certain objections to this course. 
First, he gets out of touch with the sheep in- 
dustry, and that is bad. Then he begins to 
devote his land to other purposes and it is 
harder to again start with a flock. And there 
is the very real and practical difficulty that it 
is impossible to be sure that the new flock is 
free from the enemies that led to the discarding 
of the old one. 

To the help of the shepherd comes this in- 
spiring fact. All lambs are born healthy, abso- 
lutely free of all parasites or germs of para- 
sites. There is in the placenta of the mother 
the magic mantle that shields the world from 
destruction. Though her own body may be 
devoured by evil parasites this membrane shel- 
ters within it the young untainted, to be the 
hope of a regenerated young thing, a renewal 
of primal heaJth and vigor. 

Fortunately the shepherd may take advan- 
tage of this fact to start anew with a clean 
flock, even though his ewes are tainted. Infec- 
tion will not come from the mother's milk, un- 
less in rare instances from the fouling of her 
udder. If she has a clean bed there is small 
risk of that. If she is scouring she should not 
be put in the company of ewes devoted to this 
purpose. 

These ewes should be bred as early as prac- 
ticable, so that their lambs will come if pos- 
sible in November, December or January. That 



THE DISEASES OF SHEEP. 305 

is because in northem situations there is prac- 
tically no danger of infection anywhere, indoors 
or out, in cold weather. Ewes and lambs 
should all be well fed to encourage a vigorous 
growth. ; 

When warm weather begins to come in April 
the ewes should be confined rigidly to the barn 
and small yard. In that yard there should not 
be pei^nitted to grow even a single weed or 
spear of grass. This rule must be absolute. 
The yard must be small and kept always per- 
fectly clean. If it is not the lambs may nibble 
at some plant and on its lower length, or roots, 
imbibe the germs that we are seeking to avoid. 

Nor should there be any feed thrown into the 
yard. Furthermore the hay racks should be 
kept clean and the water clean at all times. 

As fast as ewes cease giving a good milk flow 
they should be removed to another pen and 
thus their contact removed, with a per cent of 
danger. 

When grass comes the lambs should be taken 
to a field where no sheep ran the previous year, 
where no sheep manure had been spread the 
previous year, and where no stream or pool 
could bring germs from some other flock. Once 
established there no other sheep should for an 
instant be peniiitted to mingle with them. 

The ewes, if there is room on the farm, may 
be kept over for another crop of lambs, since it 
will take two crops to produce enough ewe 
lambs to make up their number. After that all 
that are not of this youthful blood and free 
from infection should be sold and the young- 
sters given possession. 



306 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

At all times there should be this thought, 
'^Has there been opportunity during the past 
year for any sheep to drop germs with her 
dung upon this land f " If the answer is ' ' yes, ' ' 
then do not permit the lambs and yearlings of 
the clean flock to graze upon that ground for 
an instant. 

The extra cost of this method of producing a 
perfectly healthy ewe flock is almost nothing. 
A trifle of care, a constant thoughtfulness, a few 
hours labor and the result, a banishment of 
the torments that render 60 per cent of farm 
flocks in the corn-belt diseased and compara- 
tively unprofitable. 

And having a healthy flock, absolutely with- 
out parasites, they will remain so if the germs 
are not brought in by something added to the 
flock. It is barely possible that rabbits may 
carry some of the same parasites that afflict 
sheep, as also do goats and deer. Aside from 
them there are no other carriers of these germs 
so far as we know. Unfortunately we must 
purchase rams or else practice inbreeding. The 
writer is inclined to think that with strong, 
well bred, vigorous stock once secured it is 
wiser to inbreed for a tijue rather than to risk 
purchasing a new starter of germs with an 
uncertain ram. However, the ram himself m^ay 
be put in quarantine on his arrival, permitted 
to associate with the flock only when he can be 
of use to it and at all other times have his own 
quarters, a grassy paddock with shed attached. 

Thus, without giving a dose of medicine or 
applying to the soil any lime, salt, corrosive 



tHE DISEASES OF SHEEP. 30? 

sublimate or iron sulphate, the farm secures 
clean pastures, stocked with clean sheep. 

Following the thought of destroying the 
parasites in the soil, as is frequently advised by 
applications of lime, salt or chemicals, the 
writer would call to the attention of the reader 
the folly of the proposal. There is in an acre 
43,560 square feet. Supposing that we desired 
to purify that soil to a depth of one foot, not 
an unreasonable depth, there is then to purify 
43,560 cubic feet of soil. It would take at least 
a pound of salt to destroy germ life in a cubic 
foot of soil; it is doubtful if that would suf- 
fice, so that about 21 tons of salt to the acre 
would be required. Of lime probably two or 
three times as much would be needed, and 
when it comes to applying chemicals one had 
better halt, for he will have destroyed his land 
before he will have killed the germs ; that much 
is sure. And why do this thing, when all these 
germs will perish (we believe) in one year un- 
less they find their host, a sheep, deer or goat, 
in which to undergo part of their life cycle! 

(The writer is happy to give credit to Doctor 
W. H. Dalrymple of Baton Eouge, La., for hav- 
ing performed by far the most useful series of 
experiments ever made in attempting to rid 
sheep of parasites in much the manner that he 
has described in the foregoing paragraphs. It 
is remarkable that a far Southern state should 
undertake a work fraught with so much im- 
port to men in the sheep growing regions fur- 
ther north, the explanation being of course that 
Doctor Dalrymple is a Scot. 



CHAPTER X. 



THE ANGORA AND MILKING GOATS. 

It may not be out of place in this work to 
give a little information concerning the Angora 
goat, which is now becoming so well and favor- 
ably known. 

Indeed the sudden arrival of the Angora into 
public appreciation and its very wide distribu- 
tion is a feat unparalleled in the history of 
American live stock. 

THE ANGORA GOAT. 

While not meaning to wander far into the 
realms of goat lore, yet a few words concern- 
ing the Angora may be appreciated in this 
work. There is nothing like the sudden appre- 
ciation of the Angora known, and its prompt 
acceptance and wide dissemination are without 
a parallel. So late as 1897 the first large num- 
ber of goats were sent from Texas to Iowa as 
an experiment in brush destruction, going to 
J. R. Standley. These goats "grubbed the land, 
brought in grass and boarded themselves, be- 
sides yielding a profit." Other shipments fol- 
lowed. They also were successful. Since that 
time goats have been introduced into every 

(308) 



THE ANGORA AND MILKING GOATS. 309 

state and territory of the United States and 
into Alaska and the Hawaiian Islands. Usu- 
ally they have accomplished their object; they 
have destroyed brush, and grass has followed 
in their footsteps. Now there is a demand for 
goats and inquiry concerning them. Several 
kinds of disappointments have followed the 
introduction of so-called ''Angoras" into new 
neighborhoods. To answer some of the many 
questions arising in connection with this sub- 
ject this chapter is given. Breeders of Angora 
goats should have one of the following works, 
''New Industry, or Raising the Angora Goat 
and Mohair for Profit," by Wm. L. Black of 
Texas. "Angora Goat Raising and Milch 
Goats, ' ' by George Fayette Thompson, or ' ' The 
Angora Goat," by S. C. C. Schreiner (Long- 
mans, Green & Co.). Schreiner 's work is a 
classic, a thing of beauty. Thompson is con- 
cise and practical, enthusiastic enough, and 
tells besides much about milking goats. Black 
is an earnest advocate and presents a great 
array of facts and examples of successful prac- 
tice. I think he leaves out the failures and 
some of the difficulties. 

Very extravagant things are claimed for 
Angora goats. It has been claimed that they 
will shear from six to eight pounds of mohair 
per year, worth— well, all sorts of prices from 
75 cents to $8.00. That was in the olden time. 
They have been claimed to be immune to all 
sickness, hardy as the common goat; that they 
would kill dogs and keep disease from among 
horses, that they would clear land of brush and 



310 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

make delicious mutton at tlie same time, that 
they were very prolific. 

Now the simple truth is that the Angora 
goat is the most delicate, though the most beau- 
tiful goat known. It is troubled with all the 
diseases that afflict sheep, or most of them. It 
is not very prolific, nor are the kids very easily 
raised in a cold and wet climate. It is not dog- 
proof, nor will it serve very well to keep dogs 
from sheep. It destroys brush effectually, if it 
can reach it, but should have some grass along 
with the brush to keep it in good order. And 
it sheaTS a fleece of about 3 pounds that is wortli 
from 7 to 40 cents per pound. 

While the w^riter from his study of goats 
])elieves his characterizations true, yet he be- 
Jieves further that despite their delicacy An- 
goras can be profitably grown in every state 
in the Union, wherever there is rough, dry, 
brushy land, that they may readily be kept in 
health, and more readily than sheep, since they 
are in no danger from parasitic infection while 
browsing on trees, and that the quality of their 
fleeces may be so greatly increased by syste- 
matic breeding that the 7-cent fleeces will be- 
come extinct and even the best fleeces will be- 
come more valuable. 

Let us get at the history of the American 
Angora goat. The native home of the Angora 
is in Asiatic Turkey, on a high, dry and rather 
cold plateau. It may be that there is some 
peculiarity of the soil and climate of that re- 
gion, or some mental twist of the breeders 
there, since there are other animals found there 



THE ANGORA AND MILKING GOATS. 313 

that have the long, silky hair that characterizes 
the true Angora. Cats from Angora have that 
quality, and dogs are said sometimes to possess 
it. The ancient history of the Angora is un- 
known. It has doubtless been the companion 
of man for countless ages and civilizations have 
existed upon the world far longer than we have 
been taught. This region of Angora was in 
ancient days famed for the wonderful fabrics 
woven there, aud the Angora goat furnished 
the fleece for these fabrics. Occasionallv war 
or famine decimated the flocks, and at last the 
changes in industrial life hushed the looms of 
Angora and the industry of spinning the fabrics 
was transferred to England. Thereafter mo- 
hair became a regular export from that land, 
and the quality of the product suffered at once. 
AVhat was good enough to use at home became 
too good to sell abroad and the Angoras were 
crossed with a baser goat called the Kurd. It 
is thought that there is not now in the world a 
specimen of the true, ancient Angora. The loss 
has been in the fineness of the hair and the 
presence of more kemp, which is an under hair 
shorter and damaging to true mohair, because 
it will not take dyes. It would seem from the 
studies of Menders law that it is most un- 
likely that the time and honorable blood of the 
old Ang:ora is lost, for it is sure to reappear in 
its purity sooner or later, if it has not already, 
and can be fixed again, if it has not already 
been fixed, by proper matings. 

In the beginning the Sultan of Turkey gave a 
few Angoras to Pr. Jas. B. Davis of South Caro- 



314 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

lina. Dr. Davis called them ^ ' Cashmeres, ' ' and 
for some years they were called by that name in 
America, though the Cashmere goat is quite dis- 
tinct and of no great value in its present form 
and has never been bred pure in the United 
States, so far as the author knows. These goats 
throve fairly well, and following the custom of 
the times very great laudation was made of 
their virtues, among other things that they 
sheared from four to eight pounds, which sold 
for $6.00 to $8.00 per pound in Scotland. This, 
unfortunately, was an exaggeration of about 
$7.25 per pound, but the goafs meekly bore the 
obloquy as in the Israelitish days of old, mean- 
time going merrily about their true mission, to 
subdue and replenish the earth! 

Wlien Dr. Davis had finished with his 
goats they were sold, and among the purchasers 
was Col. Richard Peters, of Atlanta, Georgia. 
He proved to be an Angora enthusiast and in 
tuni sent specimens to Texas, California and 
other places. 

It is significant that the Angora never became 
prominent anywhere except in Texas, Califor- 
nia and Oregon until within comparatively re- 
cent years. There were several reasons for that. 
The warm, dry climates of the two states were 
peculiarly suited to the animals and land was 
cheap there and range limitless. Then there 
w^ere found in Texas herds of common Mexican 
goats on which the Angoras could be crossed. 
This crossing was done on an extensive scale 
and in a short time there sprung into existence 
great flocks of grade Angora goats, larger and 



THE ANGORA AND MILKING GOATS. 315 

stronger than the pure-bred animals, but pos- 
sessing- a small amount of inferior hair. Fur- 
ther crossing greatly improved the hair, how- 
ever, and it is not meant to suggest that this 
debasing blood has brought ruin or irretriev- 
able loss. In truth, the added size and strength 
of the grades have been a help, and by the care- 
ful selection of bucks for a few generations 
wonders are worked in Angora grade fleeces. 

This brings us (without mention of further 
interesting importations) down to the date of 
the recent exploitation of the Angora. Proved 
in 1897 to be unrivalled brush exterminators in 
Iowa, their fame spread, and Angoras have 
been sent in carload lots to all the states and 
territories. When they have been good goats 
and given good care they have proved profit- 
able. "When they have been common goats, the 
result' of indifferent grade sires on common 
smooth Mexican goats, they have still proved 
excellent brush exterminators but have struck 
their owners with dismay when they had them 
sheared and tried to sell the fleeces. 

Within very recent years, however, since the 
establishment of a record and flock book for the 
Angoras, with classes at fairs and new impor- 
tations from Asia and Africa, there is a very 
great improvement coming over the Angora in- 
dustry and it is only a question of time when 
good mohair will be abundant on the American 
market. When that time comes, curiously 
enough, it will be in greater demand than it is, 
now that it is rather scarce. Mohair is used 
in making plush for dress fabrics and yams. 



316 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

It is the most durable of all fabrics, ])racticaliy 
indestructible by wear. Most of the upholsterj^ 
of railway cars in the United States is said to 
be made from mohair. 

What then could a breedeer hope to reach in 
Angora goat breeding! By the use of right 
sires, for a series of years, by discarding from 
the flock steadily the worst, he ought in time to 
possess a flock shearing from 4 to 6 pounds of 
mohair, worth about 45 cents per pound at the 
present writing. That will pay well. A fleece 
of 2 to 3 pounds worth 20 cents per pound is 
discouraging. 

It takes time, however, to breed out the com- 
mon goat from the Angoras. To buy any large 
number of practically pure-bred goats is im- 
possible in America. The breeder must have 
patience, persistence and the habit of exter- 
mination. 

Now what of management? Newly arrived 
goats from the Southwest are tender and when 
turned on cold Eastern pastures may suffer con- 
siderably for a time. They need a dry shed, 
open to the south. To this they will come when- 
ever it threatens rain. They may be fed there 
some dry forage, clover hay or whatever is 
available. It is not usual to feed them grain, 
and much grain will cause the kids to be born 
with small vitality. The fence restraining them 
may be of woven wire and thus they are easily 
held in bounds. They must not be confined to 
too small a pasture else they will famish. Bet- 
ter let them take their time to the brush ex- 
termination and make a profit from them as 



ME ANGORA AND MILKING GOATS. 3l7 

you go along. They will feed upon the leaves 
of almost every species of tree and brush, if 
they can reach them. They will not do much 
in the way of girdling trees, though they will 
eat the bark from some varieties of trees. They 
do not much relish hickory. Gk*een briars are 
dangerous because they sometimes catch and 
hold fast the little goats till they perish. They 
should be mown off with a brush scythe and 
then the goats will keep them down. They do 
not make a meal of any one article of diet but 
nibble a few leaves from one shrub, a few from 
another, then some weeds, some grass, more 
leaves, and so on the day long. They wOl not 
thrive on brush alone. They will live well on 
grass alone but thrive better to have brush 
to mix with it. They require water. Laurel 
will poison them if they are given access to it 
when very hungry. 

Angoras make good eating. Their flesh is 
called '' venison" or ''mutton," according to 
the state of the respective markets. The An- 
gora does not have the overpowering odor of 
the common male goat. They are as dainty as 
deer in their habits. Offered for sale at our 
great market centers they sell for considerably 
less than sheep, 1 to 2 cents per pound less. 

This condition may improve with time and 
the elimination of more of the common goat 
from their blood. 

Angora goats are not heavy milkers and are 
not suitable for use as milking goats. Great ex- 
cellence is seldom attained in two or three di- 
verse lines of endeavor. 



31^ Sheep farming in America. 

The beginner in goat raising in the East 
should ^x in his mind a few facts. Angoras are 
not exceptions to the universal rule in the ani- 
mal world that food is required for sustenance 
and growth. They are able, true, to eat foods 
that other animals neglect, but as a rule brush- 
wood is not very nutritious and there ought to 
be some grass in connection. In winter time 
Angoras deprived of food suffer as sheep would. 
They can not subsist on coarse browse. They 
need bright straw, com fodder, a very little 
grain. Then let them browse what they will. 
They absolutely must have abundant exercise to 
keep them in health. They love to take it by 
roaming about and browsing. 

They must not be crowded. The shed should 
be roomy and airy and dry under foot. It is 
absolutely essential that they should have an 
abundance of fresh air. They are very dainty 
about what they eat and will not eat any for- 
age that has been dropped underfoot. Their 
racks, therefore, should be so made as to hold 
the forage up. It is useless to lift hay or fod- 
der from the floor or ground and put it again 
into the rack; they refuse it. They have the 
sensitive noses of rabbits. 

Do not forget the dryness under foot. The 
yard must not be muddy, and if it becomes so, 
slightly raised walks of plank or rock should 
lead from the dry shed to the dry pasture out- 
side. There should be abundant opportunity of 
entrance to the shed. It is best to leave the 
entire south side open, else some quarrelsome 
individuals will prevent the others from gain- 
ing ingress. 



THE ANGORA AND MILKING GOATS. 319 

The period of gestation in tlie Angora is 
about 150 days. A buck will serve from 40 to 
50 does. 

The buck should be managed as has been ad- 
vised for sheep', though some breeders practice 
turning in about 5 bucks to the hundred does 
and leaving them, with the result that nearly 
all the kids come at one time. This may be a 
good practice if the breeder can manage them 
in that way. 

The kids must not come before warm weather. 
After the leaves start in the spring is the proper 
time. The does should be sufficiently well nour- 
ished to be strong at kidding time, though one 
must not overdo this kindness, else the kids 
will come weak. Abundant exercise for the doe 
with sufficient food will make a successful kid- 
ding. 

Angoras must have care and attention at kid- 
ding time, much more than ewes require. The 
little kids are delicate and can not endure cold 
or wet. They are not hardy and must not 
follow their mothers out to graze before they 
are six or eight weeks old. Should they at- 
tempt to follow they will become weary and lie 
down to rest and become lost. Therefore, they 
are kept in the corral and a board put up over 
which the mother must jump. When the kid 
can also jump out it may follow her. 

A better scheme is the ^'bridge.'' This is an 
incline ending abruptly in the air, the high end 
at the corral side. The does jump up on this to 
go out and the weaklings run under where they 
can not get through. Thus they are removed 



320 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

from danger of being stepx)ed upon by their 
mothers or other does. 

When the kid is born it should be placed with 
its mother in a small pen. Care should be taken 
not to handle it unnecessarily, nor to rub it 
against other kids, else the mother may become 
confused by the odor, and she depends upon 
that entirely for her knowledge of her offspring. 
If it is inconvenient to have a pen for each doe, 
several may be confined to the one pen, placing 
their kids apart as far as possible. The kids 
are often ' ' staked, ' ' that is, tied by one leg with 
a strong cord in which is a swivel. The doe will 
always return to where she left the kid to seek 
for it. It is said that twice a day is often 
enough for the kids to suck. Should the doe 
disown her offspring she will own it again if 
confined with it and the kid assisted to suck for 
a few days. 

The kids must not be exposed to cold or wet, 
as has been said. They are more delicate than 
lambs. Is not this a striking proof of the an- 
tiquity of the breed? For how many unnum- 
bered centuries has it been under the fostering 
care of man ! The common goat is the hardiest 
of domestic animals, and the most difficult to 
get profit from. The Angora, with its very deli- 
cately beautiful fleece, has had this ruggedness 
sacrificed to the beauty and usefulness of its 
covering. As a rule the better bred the An- 
goras are, the nearer pure-bred, the more deli- 
cate they are. And yet, given right manage- 
ment, they are hardy enough. They endure 
tropic heats and semi- Arctic colds, but they 



THE ANGORA AND MILKING GOATS. 321 

must be dry, they must liave air and exercise 
and food partly of browse and partly of grass. 
We will not liere go into the range manage- 
ment of Angoras. Any one wishing to grow 
them in large numbers should make careful 
study in detail. He will find much information 
in the volumes previously mentioned in this 
chapter. Dry, hilly ranges are admirably 
adapted to Angora goat growing. They seem 
rather more expensive to manage than range 
sheep, especially at kidding time." It is not well 
to put more than 1,000 in a flock. An increase 
of 75 per cent is considered good. In small lots 
increases of 100 per cent are not unusual. The 
better bred the Angoras the fewer the pairs of 
twins bom. 

Angoras suffer sometimes from stomach 
wonns, from foot rot and lice, from two sorts 
of scab (they are exempt from sheep scab), and 
probably from nodular disease. Thev have a 
disease of their own called ^'hakosis'," which 
makes them waste away, giving them a tired 
feeling, accompanied with diarrhea and cough. 
It was once believed that Angoras had no dis- 
eases, indeed like sheep in dry, hilly regions 
they are practically exempt from" disease, 
but when brought to damp countries with 
dense green grass their environment is so 
changed that they become infected in the same 
manner as sheep. The treatment for intenial 
parasites is the same as for sheep. Good man- 
agement in suitable locations will prevent dis- 
ease in Angoras. 

Where should Angoras be introduced? Not 



322 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

to arable farms. Sheep pay better. But to 
hilly and brushy regions where it is not desired 
to encourage the growth of new timber, or 
where it is desired to clear away a part of the 
brush and replace it with grass. In Virginia, 
West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and 
southern Ohio, in Tennessee and the hill regions 
south of there Angoras might exist by thou- 
sands with profit and advantage. 

They should in all locations have provision 
made for feeding, in winter, some dry corn fod- 
der, oats and hay. 

The difficulty in introducing Angoras to the 
best region for them is the character of many 
of the people living there. The careful reader 
will have realized ere this that Angora goat 
breeding is not adapted to a careless, lazy or 
indifferent man's habits. More than most ani- 
mals, Angoras are dependent upon man for aid 
in infancy and help at intervals during life. 
Angoras are destroyed sometimes by dogs, 
though it is thought that with a number of 
wethers among them they are less subject to 
attack than sheep. The man who wishes to 
breed goats without care or attention from him 
had better take the common ^'Billie goat,'' 
which is as energetic a brush destroyer as he 
needs, is edible, does not have to be shorn or 
need attention at kidding time, and can usually 
defend himself from dogs. 

THE MILKING GOAT. 

Doubtless goats have been the companions of 
man for a longer time than cows, and have be- 



THE ANGORA AND MILKING GOATS. 323 

frieuded liim for most of this time by sharing 
their milk with him. Therefore the milking 
habit has been well fixed in certain types of 
goats. 

It is doubtless true that goats make better use 
of their food than cows, and turn more of it 
into milk. Therefore from the standpoint of 
economy goats make milk better and cheaper 
than cows. Furthermore, goats are almost 
never attacked with tuberculosis and their milk 
is said to have tonic properties of especial value 
to children. Then there is the fact that a goat 
is very much smaller than a cow, is easily shel- 
tered, is tractable, requires but one-eighth as 
much food, and is in many ways better adapted 
to village or suburban life. 

Taking these facts into consideration it is 
surprising that we have not had a larger devel- 
opment of the milch goat in America. There 
are two principal reasons : the incapacity of the 
average American for independence and self 
help, and his false pride that makes him fear 
ridicule if he adopts a practice that is followed 
by his poorer neighbors. Near many cities 
there are colonies of European emigrants who 
make more or less use of the goat as a milk-giv- 
ing animal. Many a well-to-do suburbanite 
could follow his example with profit and gain 
great comfort from the assurance of his pure 
supply of milk, produced under his own eye. 

The writer has often seen cottagers in the 
old world employ goats for this purpose of 
milk-giving. Very often they would be teth- 
ered near the dwelling and children would 



S24 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

bring them forage, clippings from the lawn^ 
refuse from the table and surplus vegetables 
from the garden. Children Avould often do the 
milking, also, and the friendship between the 
gentle goat and the appreciative children was 
very real. 

The amount of milk given by a well bred goat 
is extraordinary. From three to five quarts per 
day are not uncommon in Europe and the period 
of lactation is long. Some German authorities 
assert that the goat often yields ten times the 
weight of its body annually and that excep- 
tional animals yield as much as eighteen times 
their weight. 

It is a good goat of any breed that will yield 
two quarts per day for seven or eight months 
in the year. 

The flavor of goats' milk is good, if the goats 
have good food. If they must subsist upon bit- 
ter and aromatic brush or upon onions, and 
refuse from the garden, there is danger of the 
flavors reacting on the milk. Milch goats when 
in use should l3e as carefully fed as dairy cows, 
given good wholesome sweet hay or clovers, al- 
falfa, OT dried lawn clippings. They should 
have their ration of bran and oats, with a trifle 
of oilmeal if the best is sought. At times when 
they are not in milk they may be permitted to 
feast upon all sorts of brush and weeds that 
taste more palatable to them than to us. 

As to the amount of feed required, it is said 
that eight goats require about the same amount 
vof food as one cow. 

Milch goats need a comfortable, clean, dry 



THE ANGORA AND MILKING GOATS. 325 

lioiise, well ventilated, for their winter's home. 
They need a good fence, since they will climb 
and creep out whenever they have opportunity. 
They are quite often tied in stalls as cows are 
tied, though it would seem better to give them 
clean, roomy pens. They should be milked reg- 
ularly three times a day by the same person. 
They should be taken to a clean, odorless place 
to be milked. Previous to milking the udder 
and teats should be wiped quite clean. No tu- 
berculous person should milk either goats or 
cows. 

Milch goats are very prolific, having many 
pairs of twins and triplets. The Nubian goat, 
one of the best milking kinds, is said to have 
dropped eleven kids in one year. The period of 
gestation is about 155 days. 

Just how to manage the kids when their 
mother's milk is needed for human consumption 
the writer does not see. Probably to wean them 
after the age of ten days, feeding them with the 
bottle a portion of their mother's milk and by 
substituting other foods, as bran with a little 
oilmeal in it, oats and good hay, or grass in 
summer would solve that problem. 

It must be confessed that the interest in niik^li 
goats is mostly speculative at present in Amer- 
ica, since there are so few here and the source 
of supply being Germany, Switzerland, France, 
and perhaps Malta or Italy, where contagious 
animal diseases, notably foot-and-mouth dis- 
ease, prevail, our regulations forbid the i.m])or- 
tation of goats or any other cud-chewing ani- 
mals. There is hope that some way may be 



326 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 

opened to the importation of these kindly ani- 
mals and that an industry may spring up here. 
The best adapted to our climate would seem to 
be the goats of Switzerland and Germany, the 
Toggenburger and Saanen breeds being espe- 
cially desirable. 

The Xublan goat is the greatest milker of 
them all, as well as the largest in size, but is 
not hardy in the colder parts of our country. 
Crosses of the Nubian on other goats are hard- 
ier and good milkers. It is remarkable that 
Africa should have given us this animal, the 
sole representative of its breeding that has 
come to us if we except the fat-tailed sheep of 
Tunis. 

Doubtless these Nubian goats gave milk in 
the days of Joseph and Pharaoh. 



INDEX 



Ag^e to breed ewes. ?3. 

to discard ewes. 226. 
Aged range ewes, mating of on Eastern farms. 220. 

use of on Eastern faims. 220. 
Alfalfa and clover for pasture. 143. 

and oats for pasture, 139. 

and clover, methods of pasturing. 141. 

ear corn and silage for lamb feeding, 252. 

vs. prairie hay for lambs. 238. 
An'?ora buck management. 147. 
An-oras. use of sheds for. 146. 

extravagant claims made for. 143. 

food for. 146. 

for mutton. 145. 

historical notes on. 143. 

in Texas. California and Oregon. 145. 

introduction of into the United States. 144. 

management of, 146. 

milking proclivities of. 146. 

native home of. 143. 

nature of. 143 

period of gestation. 146. 

ress of, 148. 

where to introduce. 148. 

recent popularity of. 145. 

possibilities of future for, 145. 

possibilities of, 143. 

bibliography. 142. 

success of as brush eradicators. 142. 

kids, care of. 147. 

kidding, time for, 147. 
Baby mutton, cost of producing. 105. 
Barn basement, use of in summer, 122. 
Beet pulp, feeding, 262. 
Benefits from sheep farming, 16. 
Black-faced sheep, characteristics of. 51. 

at home. 51. 
Rlaek-tops and Delaine Merinos development of. 25. 

merits of. 25. 
Bladder Disorders, treatment of, 282. 
Bloat or hoven. remedies for. 149. 
Buck hei'd on the range. 198. 
Building up a flock, 57. 
Breeding ewes, assorting of, 73. 
Breeding season, 199. 

in different breeds, 74 
Cabbages for sheep. 151. 
Care in management to prevent disease. 281. 
Care of dressed lamb. 1 14. 

ewes and lambs, 82. 
Castration of lambs. 127. 

of old rams. 127. 

(S27) 



328 INDEX. 



Charactei' of men influenced by shepherding, 19. 

Cheviot characteristics, 50. 

Chilled lambs, reviving of, 93. 

Cleanliness of yards, 305. 

Clipping lambs before shipping, 256. 

Clover and alfalfa for pasture, 143. 

Colorado lamb feeding, 281. 

its ups and downs, 235. 

source of supply for, 231. 
Colorado, pea feeding in, 231. 

Competition of Eastern lambs with range lambs, 125. 
Conformation desirable in a ram, 58. 
Corn-belt, feeding in the, 242. 
Corn, feeding of on grass, liO. 

for lambs, 105. 

amount required for 100 lambs, 255. 
Cotswolds, characteristics of, 45. 
Coyotes, 201. 

Curing external parasites, 278. 
Creep for lambs, 104. 
Delaine Merinos for early lambs, 29. 
Diseases classified. 278. 

on the range, 187. 
Dipping, amount of material needed for, 68. 

at large yards, 214. 

methods of, 65. 

of farm flocks, 68. 

on the range. 275, 

vat. construction of, 85. 
Disorders from overfeeding, 281, 
Disowning of lambs, 94. 
Docking the lambs, 125. 
Dorset Horns for early lambs, 47. 
Dorsets, characteristics of, 47. 

as milkers, 47, 
Downs, origin of, 35. 
Drenching, the right method of. 301. 

the position of animal when, 302. 
Drying up the ewe after weaning. 128 
Economy in producing baby mutton, 105. 
Encysted brain parasites, life cycle of, 278. 
Ewe flock, care of. 130. 
Exercise for lambs, 105. 
Fall and winter pasture for wethers, 275. 
Fall-born lambs best, 163 

management of, 163. 
Feed for sucking lamb, 110. 

for young lambs, 103. 

importance of succulence for milking ewes, 9<x> 

for milking ewe, 98. 

introducing Western lambs to, 252. 
Feed rack, construction of, 247. 
Feeder lambs, selection of at yards, 217. 
Feeders direct from the range. 229. 

use of native, 223. 
Feeding in Colorado, 231. 
Feeding lambs in Kansas and Nebraska, 237. 

in the San Luis Valley, Colorado. 231. 

on alfalfa in Colorado, 231. 

late lambs. 119. 

ewes after lambing. 96. 

stock lambs. l'^3. 

corn on grass, 120. 



INDEX. 329 



Feeding Western wethers, ~67. 

pregnant ewes, 82. 

lambs in creep, troughs for, 104. 
Floor space required for lanabs, M6. 
Foot-rot. treaiment of, 1.56. 
Foundation ewes, .59. 
Forcing of ewes, 78. 
Gains of sheep and cattle compared, 270. 

open yards and sheds compared, 271. 
Garget, bacteria of, where found, 285. 

causes of, 286. 

or mammitis, symptoms of, 285. 
Gasoline for stomach worms, 137, 298. 
Gestation, duration of, 74. 
Grain to ewes after lambing, 96. 
Grass in spring, 19l). 

when to turn on, 119. 
Great Britain, observations in, 13. 
Grub in the head, treatment of, 288. 
Hampshires for arable lands, 40. 

characteristics of, 40. 
Harvesting corn with lambs, 239. 
Hay for fattening lambs, 248. 
Health of new-born lambs, 219. 
Hoven (see bloat), 146. 
Identifying ewes and lambs, 177. 
Infusion of Long-wbol blood on ranges, 193. 
Inspection on the range, 198. 
Instinct of sheep on the range, 202. 
Intimacy between farmer and those under him 18 
Isolation of ewes at lambing, 88. 
Lamb, care of new-born, 90. 
Lambing on the range and after. 202. 

on grass on farms, J 58. 

season should end the first of May, 160. 

tent, 159. 

time on the range. 200. 
Late-born lambs, feeding of, 116, 
Leicesters, characteristics of, 42. 

improvement of by Bakewell, 43. 
Lincolns, characteristics of, 46. 
Liver fluke ("the rot"), 289. 
Loss in feeding lambs, 261. 
Management of healthy flock, 303. 

of ewes with sucking lambs, 82. 

of sheep, "happy-go-lucky" way, H. 
Manure, use of, 256. 
Marking by notching the eai% 174. 

for registration, 174. 

ewes to indicate when bred, 76. 

with oil and lampblack, 174. 

with metal ear labels, 174. 

with tat oo mark, 175. 
Mating, assorting for, 73. 
Mature sheep, feeding of, 266. 
Merinos, ability of to "rough it," 22, 

as mothers for cross-bred "hot-house" lambs. 24 

crossing of on Mexican sheep, 183. 

families of, 22. 

following fashions in, 22. 

merits and importance of, 24. 

molding of under man's hand, 22. 

recent evolution of, 24. 

wool, staple of, 22. 



330 INDEX. 



Mexican lambs as feeders. 188. 

sheep, information about. 181. 
breeding up of, 182. 
infusing Merino into, 183. 
hardiness of during drouth, 183. 
Millv flow after lambing, 96. 
Milking goat, adoption of in America. 322. 
barn management of, 325. 
economy of, 323. 
foods for. 324. 
kids, management of. 325. 
capacity of. 324. 
prolificacy of, 325. 
source of supply of, 326. 
Mill screenings, feeding of in Minnesota, 244. 
Miller, H. P., on how to dre.ss hot-house lambs. 114. 
Mutton breeds, general character of . 32. 

origin of. 32. 
Mutton, increased consumption of. 16. 
Natives as feeders, care of, 229. 

in the stock yards. 224. 
Native lambs not best feeders, 212. 
New Mexico, sheep management in, 180. 

old conditions in, 181. 
Night at the sheep camp, 180. 
Nodular diseases, nature of, 138. 290. 

prevention of. 138. 
Non-breeders caused by overfeeding. 149. 
Nubian goat. 326. 

Number of sheep in various states, 15. 
Oats for lambs, 251. 

with alfalfa for pasture, 140. 
Old ewes from stock yards. 224. 
Oxfords, characteristics of. 42. 

origin of, 43. 
Parasites, change of pasture to prevent. 136. 
infection of lambs by, 124. 
in the soil. 307. 

mature sheep resistant of. 136. 
Parasitic bronchitis, 292. 

infection on ranges. 194. 
Parturition, aid of ewe in, 89. 
Pasturing lambs on clean fields. 305. 
Peas for lambs, 265. 

Pens of panels for ewe and lamb in barn. 88. 
Post-mortem examination. 283. 
Pumpkins as vermifuges. 152. 
use of. 154. 
value cf to flock. 72. 
Purchase oi new ram for healthy flock, 307. 
Pregnant ewes in natural state. 78. 
feed for. 78. 
management of, 81. 
Presentation of lamb, 82. 

Price, advance necessary for profit in feeding, 271. 
Prices, range of for fancy lambs, 11 4. 
Prospect for sheep owner. 16. 
Protein in lamb feeding, need of, 238. 
Udder, care of after lambing, 1-^4. 
Racks for feeding sheep, construction of, 85. 
Ram. turning with ewes. 76. 

number of services capable of. 77. 
separation of from ewei,, 76. 
souices of for tbe range. 199. 



INDEX. 331 



Rambouillet. ability ot to conceive early, 27. 

merits of, 27. 

origin of. 26. 

popularity of. 29. 

management of, 30. 
Ranching in Montana. Wyoming and the Dakotas. 193 
Range-bred rams, advantages of, 1S9. 
Range ewes, vigor of, 200. 

lambs, vigor of. 200. 
Rape for lamb pasture. 152. 239. 
Ration for heavy milk flow. 98. 
Recording sheep in England. 178. 
Regularity in feeding lambs, 259. 
Relative gains of lambs and wethers, 272. 

losses from open yards and barn feeding. 275. 
Restocking Eastern farms, 15. 
Roots for milking ewes. 100. 
Roundworms, coal-tar creosote for. 296. 

gasoline for. 298. 
Rye for pasture. 139. 
Salt, feeding of. 121. 
Salting the lambs, 240. 
Scab insect, nature of. 61. 

prevention and cure of, 65. 
Selection of aealthy lambs. 213. 
Self-feeders, use of. 262. 

for coi'n for wethers. 271. 
Self-feeding ••orn crib. 272. 
Selling out to get rid of diseases, 303. 
Separation of ewes from lambs by corral, 129. 
Shade, artificial best, 122. 

necessity of. 121. 
Shearing early, advantages of. 166. 

general method of. i67. 

machines, use of in summer. 173. 

machine, merits of. 170. 

on the range. 294. 

time, 256. 
Sheep farming, ups and downs o.'. 209. 
Sheep feeding, management in fe^^d yai-ds, 270. 
Sheep iniustry. advancement of. 21 1". 
Shelter for lamb-feeding in corn-belt, 242. 
Shepherd's ci'ook. 87. 
Shropshii'es, characteristics of. 39. 

origin of, 38. 
Silage for ewes in milk. 99. 
Silage for fattening lambs, 257. 
Silo, floors of. 2.58. 
Southdowns. characteristics of, 36. 

mana-.ement of in Sussex. 35. 
Sore eyes in lambs, loi. 
Sore feet, cause of. 251. 

treatment of, 251. 
Sore mouths, treatment of, 102. 
Sown pastures free fi-om parasites. 139. 
Soy beans for young lambs. 111. 
Space required in barn for breeding ewes. 85. 
Starting the lanab to eat, 1 10. 
Stock yards sheep, types of. 214. 
Stomach worms. Strongylus contortus, 133, 293. 

regions exempt from. 294. 
Tapeworm in dogs, prescription for. 280. 

infreiiuency of in sheep. 291. 



332 INDEX. 



Tapeworm. natu»e of. 2ii>l. 

remedy for, jyi. 
Teats, treatment for when sore. 10:2. 
Temperature of barns in winter. 245. 
Time to stock a farm. 61. 
Turn sickness. 280. 
Trailing sheep on the ranges. I8v). 
Transferring of lambs to new mothers. 95. 
Trimming of feet. 155. 

Troughs for feeding ear corn to wethers. 271. 
Type variations in sheep, 21. 
Ventilation of sheep barns, methods of. 85, 244 
Virginia, growing lambs in. 124. 
Washing sheep, methods of. 166. 
Water for lambs. 112, 246. 
Weak lambs in feed lots, starting. 250. 
Weaning lambs, 128. 
Wethers, selection of for feeders, 267. 
Winter forage on the range. 194. 
Yards for feeding-plant in the East, 248. 
Zero in the lambing barn. 89. 



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Chap. V— Variation. 

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Chap. VII— In-and-in Breeding. 
Chap. VIII— Line Breeding. 
Chap. IX— Natnral Breeding. 



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Chap. XI— Cross-Breeding. 
Chap. XII -Grade Breeding. 
Chap. XIII— Pedigree. 

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Chap. XV— The Selection of Breed- 
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Chap. XVI— The Selection of Breed- 
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Chap. XVII-Shelter. 

Chap. XVIII— General Care and At- 
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Ch.'ip. XIX— Feeding Methods. 



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